Rage of Fire
by BlueWings900
Summary: Scorching pain shot down abel's spine. It felt like dozens of needles poking him at once. The next thing he knew he was back in the vatican. The only thing was he couldn't remember who he was and had apparently shrunk!
1. Chapter 1 Spike in Energy

**Trinity Blood**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Trinity Blood. **

"This way sir," the old care taker of the inn said to Abel. "This will be your room. Dinner will be served down the hall at five pm." She said as she unlocked the door.

"Thank you miss." Abel replied with a nod and entered the room closing the door behind him. It was a small room and only had a bed at the corner by the window. It was smaller then the rooms that he had gotten back at the vatican, and much more small then the rooms back at the empire, but he didn't mind in fact he preferred a small room. After all he didn't have many things with him at the time. Most of his belongings were either in his sack or in the white coat he wore.

He shrugged off the coat revealing that his shirt underneath had two long rips on the back. Both were from his wings. Abel cursed and quickly put his coat back on. God, he needed a new shirt. He slipped out the door and without a sound he left the inn and headed for town.

He had only been out for less than a minute, and already he could hear trouble. "Get back here you filthy terran!" Abel could here someone yelling a mile away. No doubt it was a Methuselah attacking a terran. 'Looks like I won't be getting that new shirt any time soon' Abel thought, sighing. Faster then any methuselah could run, Abel took off in the direction of the fight.

He silently landed on the roof above the Methuselah. Down below a child like Methuselah was hovering above a terran who had a bag in his hand. The terran had his hands out stretched, as if by doing so it would prevent the methuselah from attacking him. " I'm sorry" he screamed.

The methuselah yanked the bag out his hand. "Here" he called over his shoulder and threw the bag into the shadows of the building below Abel.

Abel looked over the rim of his glasses to get a better look at the person below him. It was hooded figure and he could tell that it was a female by the voice. But before he could get a better look, the woman leaped up and slashed at him with a spear. He dodged it easily causing the methuselah to curse under her breath.

"Whats wrong Ast-" the young methuselah cut off seeing Abel when he landed next to his companion.

'Great' Abel thought, 'now I need to fight with these two, is it to much to ask for a little peace?' He narrowed his eye's, 'and of course they need to be people I know. Ion and Asthe.' Thoughts raced in his head as he thought about what to do. But before he could decide Ion attacked him. Without hesitating Abel caught Ion's hand and twisted it. "Is this really how you treat your friends? The empress really needs to be more strict with her subordinates." He whispered to himself knowing that the methuselah wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Let go you filthy terran! How dare you touch me!" Ion screamed in rage.

"Tovarish?" Asthe asked

"Oh, hi there Asthe," Abel said taking off his hood, a sheepish smile played on his lips. He thought it would be best to act like the person they knew.

Ion looked at Abel a defiant look on his face and he yanked his hand away. He mumbled something under his breath. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

" I'm working undercover to find the Order. There was an energy signature that spiked recently and Lady Caterina believes that it has something to do with the order."

"Really? The empress sent us on a similar mission. Perhaps we can work together again tovarish," Asthe said. It might have sounded like a question but Abel knew that it was command.

"Ah- Sure" he said as he pushed his glasses up to hide his scowl. He really wanted to get this mission over with. With the methuselah with him he knew that it was going to take longer. On top of that he was still a little edgy, seeing as he hadn't drank any blood for a while now.

"Ok... While it's nice that father Nightroad will be joining us, I'm hungry and my feet are sore." Ion said a scowl on his face. Being a noble of the empire really made Ion a pampered child.

"I just rented a hotel room and dinner will be served in a little bit," Abel said, "If you want you can stay in my hotel room. It's not the nicest but, at least you won't have to pay for anything. Here's a map to get there and the key. Abel continued as he handed it to them. I need to go pick something up first so I'll meet you there." He took a few steps away from them and wavedwith goofy smile on his face.

XXXXX

Abel returned to the hotel with his new shirt on. He had just taken off his coat seeing as people would think it weird if he continued to wear it since it was summer. When he got back to his room he found the Earl of Memphis sleeping on his bed and Asthe sat by the window.

"Did you eat well?" He asked Asthe

"The food was okay for it having been made by Terrans" she replied "but knowing you, you wouldn't even care about eating food out of a trash can."

"What! Thats not nice! Why I would never eat spoilt food." He whined looking at her in pure shock that she would actually think that.

"Uh-huh, sure what ever you say Tovarish. When you came to the empire the last time, I remember the Earl saying that you had eaten food that was left out side of a restaurant and got a stomach ache. Or where you faking it?" Asthe teased, smirking.

'Of course I was acting' Abel thought. "In any case we should probably start heading to the harbor in the morning and attack at 12. Since the order is made up of Methuselah they will be at a disadvantage." Abel said. Usually he would only give hints as to what to do on missions but he really wanted to cut this mission short and just get out of there.

Asthe looked at him with a shocked face as if saying 'I can't believe you just made a plan that actually sounds good.' "What? I have a brain too you know." Abel scolded.

XXXXXXX

Abel and the two other Methuselah were by the warehouse crouched down looking at a map. The two Methuselah wore there capes and UV lotion to protect them from the sun. Abel also wore his cape and had his hood up. "You both know the plan right?" Abel asked at the end of his instructions.

Both Methuselah nodded and quickly ran to their positions. The plan was for Ion and Asthe to enter the warehouse together in the front and for Abel enter the way the Orden wouldn't know where to go and their forces would be split. When Abel first explained the plan, his companions were both against it since he wasn't a Methuselah. But in the end they said okay because Abel reasoned with them that its better to have on strong team instead of two weak ones. Once in position all three of them signaled with a mirror and attacked.

'Monster' Abel thought to himself. 'You can't even stand being next to your own friends,' Abel gritted his teeth as he cursed himself. Already he was on the third floor, the hall in the back of him was littered with Methuselah and death hunters. He could hear Ion and Asthe fighting on the other side of the wall. "Ashes to ashes" he whispered to himself as he took down the next line of defense, shooting the methuselahs. He heard a click signaling that his gun was out of bullets. He quickly put it back into his holster and continued to the final door.

"Crusnik 02 forty percent act-" Abel was blasted though the wall before he could transform. Pain shot up his spine as he gasped for air. He wasn't even prepared for the sudden attack. He could tell Asthe and Ion were running to him, he could hear his own voice and he screamed in pain. His whole body felt like it was on fire, like a thousand needles where poking him. He curled into a tight ball and soon the darkness consumed all his senses.

XXXXX

Asthe and Ion were surprised when something black, came crashing through the wall, and were even more surprised to find that it was Abel. The priest had no noticeable injuries, which was surprising seeing as he just broke the wall. However they could tell that something was off when smoke started to come from his body.

Ashte and Ion quickly ran to his side but before they could even touch him, he began to scream in pain.

**This is my first story ever, so be nice. **


	2. Chapter 2 Missing Memories

Without thinking Asthe picked Abels limp body up and raced down the hall with Ion on her heals. She jumped down the stairs only to be met by more guards. She cursed under her breath before jumping over them, knowing that Ion would take care of them.

Abel's breathing was coming in short pained gasps. Asthe was surprised that he was still even breathing. His skin felt molten hot, almost to the point where she felt she would have to put him down, if he got any hotter. Beads of sweat could be seen on his pale faced. "Hang in there tovarish," she whispered. She didn't even realize where she was going until she stopped at the inn.

XXX

"Asthe he's not cooling down at all," Ion called. "Were you able to get in contact with the vatican? He needs treatment."

Asthe barged into the room, "I did" Asthe snapped as she began to pace in the room. Terrans are always so weak, Asthe thought to herself. If it had been just her and the count she was certain they could have taken care of the matter. "Father Tres is coming in the Iron Maiden. He-" Asthe looked at Abel "will be treated once they get here." With that she yanked the door open, stepped out, and slammed it shut.

After a few hours Ion jumped out of his seat, why hadn't he noticed earlier? Entering haste he quickly went outside and took hold of Asthe. The duchess, totally caught off guard, was practically dragged back into the room.

"He's shrinking," Ion said trying and failing to remain calm, his voice laced with panic.

"Wha-" Asthe was cut off when she heard someone enter the room.

"Damage report on Father Nightroad," came a monotone voice. The killing doll's face was totally blank as he said this. At any other moment it would have been a funny sight seeing as everyone in the room was panicking except for Tres.

"H-he's shrinking!" both Ion and Asthe yelled at once. Ion and Asthe then gave their own reports on how he was, both of them yelling at the top of their lungs. If Tres had been human he wouldn't have been able to hear both their answers at the same time. Though it still took him a little longer to process then it normally would have.

"I understand," Tres cut through the vampires' rantings. "I will take him to the Iron Maiden to see what can be done." With that, he strode over to Abel's now shrunken body, picked him up, and silently walked out of the door. He knew the two methuselah were following him.

XXX

Light swam into focus. With a groan Abel slowly got into a sitting position, as he did so the blanket fell off. He rubbed his temple with one hand as he yanked the blanket off his feet, with the other. Swinging his leg to the side of the bed he quickly stood up, making his vision all blurry. He had to take hold of the table just to make sure that he didn't fall.

After blinking back the spots he scanned the room he was in. It seemed like it was part of an infirmary and the smell of disinfectant wafted to his nose. The sight of a needle confirmed it, making him shiver.

Wait why was he scared of a needle? Why was he even in an infirmary to begin with? For that matter who was he? He tried desperately to remember anything, but all he came up with, was what little he had seen in this room. Abel looked around the room again, trying to come up with a solution. A mirror was on the table, and Abel stared at it for a while before walking over to it.

Icy blue eye's stared back at him as he studied the boy before him. Messy silver hair sat on his head, it reached all the way to his knees. The cloths he wore were to big for him, hanging loosely from his skinny frame. He sighed scratching his head, he couldn't be any more then a twelve year old but a nagging feeling told him, he was much older then that. Thirteen? Fourteen? Twenty? What, was he nine hundred or something? Strange, nine hundred, sounded right to him. He threw the thought away, there was no way he could be older then twelve. Turning away from the mirror his eye's fell on a chair. A white shirt and black pants were folded nicely on it, next to it sat a pair of glasses. Abel picked up the glasses and looked through them before putting them back down. Dang who ever wore those must have been blind. Next he picked up the shirt and held it at shoulder length to see if it would fit. Luckily it did and so did the pants. This was so confusing, why was he wearing big cloths to begin with? And why was there a pair of glasses right next to his change of cloths? He had a feeling it was meant for him.

Abel quietly opened the door a crack, twitching his nose as he smelt the fresh air come through. He half expected someone to come running as soon as the door opened but nothing happened, so he quickly stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Abel could hear the hushed chatter, down the hall to the right. To the left he couldn't hear anyone and knew it would much safer to run that way.

He didn't like the idea of running away so he began to walk toward the voices. If he was here because of them, then he could at least get answers and maybe find out who he was.

The hall opened up into a large room that looked to be the control center. In the room he could see a young boy with flaming red eye's and blond hair, he looked a few years older then Abel. At least he wasn't the only kid here. Sitting across from the boy, sat a female with blond hair with a strip of red in the middle. Looking further into the room he could see a blond haired lady wearing nuns clothing. Abel rubbed his eye's as he looked at her, for some strange reason he could see right through her.

As he rubbed his eye's someone put there hand on his shoulder. Spinning around he took a hold of the hand and flipped the man over his shoulder. The man was really hairy Abel noted, his hair looked just like a lions mane and was a brownish, black color.

"Father Nightroad, don't harm Leon" came a monotone voice. Standing right next to the entrance was a young priest with red eye's and auburn hair. Abel jumped at the voice, he hadn't even noticed the man was there until he spoke up.

"Father Nightroad?" Leon said. "This little shrimp isn't four eyes he's to small."

"Negative, this is Abel Nightroad" Tres said.

Abel felt like a cornered animal with everyones eye's on him. He looked back at them as if waiting for someone to attack. His knee's were loose, ready to run if any one dared come by him. His hands by his side, balled into fists.

When no one moved he went into a more lax position but soon regretted it when Leon punched him. "Thats for slamming me on the ground!" Leon snarled, "and this, is for giving everyone here dirty looks." Leon continue as he slammed Abel's head into the wall.

Blinking back spots Abel easily dodged Leon's next kick and delivered one of his own to Leon's chin. They continued trading punches until the blond haired boy and the woman with the red strip of red hair came forward. Abel eyed them suspiciously waiting for them to attack. "Who are you guys" he snarled, he still had a fistful of Leon's shirt in his hand.

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><p><strong>AN:** If you're reading this story please review, so I know if it's any good or not.


	3. Chapter 3 Friends and Blood

"Who are we? You've got to be kidding me. We. Are. Your. Friends. I'm Ion." Ion scowled looking at the shrunken Abel. He said the last part slowly as if he were talking to a child. Breaking up the words into syllables.

"Father Nightroad put Leon down." Tres said. He had his gun pointing right at Abel.

When Abel didn't listed Tres cocked the gun.

"Tch. So your supposed to be my friends, huh? And what about this guy pointing a gun at me? Is he supposed to be my friend?" Abel asked, scowling. He dropped Leon and crossed his hands over his chest as he looked up at everyone towering over him. Why the hell was every one taller then him?

Leon got up, rubbing his neck as he glared at Abel. Shooting Abel looks of pure hatred, wanting nothing more then to hit him more. Asthe and Ion looked at Abel, not knowing what to say to his questions. Tres was the only one who looked calm. He still held his gun, pointing it at Abel's head.

"I take it my name Is Abel Nightroad?" He continued turning to face Tres. He didn't flinch even when the gun was only an inch away from his head.

"Positive," Tres replied.

Leon snorted "he can't be four eye's, he's way to serious and short. On top of that, he's not wearing glasses. Doesn't Abel have super bad eye sight? It's not like he somehow just shrank, got amnesia, became supper strong, and got good eye sight, all in one day." Leon yelled, waving one finger to emphasize the 'day' part.

Abel was getting tired of this. This man's yelling was giving him a bad headache, and the priest was still holding a gun at his head. To make matters worst he didn't even know who he was or where he was, and nobody would give him a straight answer.

"Like I was saying he can't-" Leon cut off when Abel punched Leon in the gut before spinning around and punching Tres' elbow to get him to release the gun. Surprisingly though the man didn't drop it, but he didn't let that bother him and continued with his attack on the other two.

The other two were much stronger then Leon was, and actually dodged a few of his blows. Neither of them tried to attack Abel though, and only raised their hands once or twice to block a kick, or punch.

Where the hell was he getting all this power? He almost fought like he was a Methuselah not some terran. If he hadn't shrunk Ion and Asthe were sure that they wouldn't be able to dodge his blows at all.

Each time Abel attacked the other two he would always aim for vitals, but his arms were to darn short and therefore it looked like he was attacking wildly. After getting no where with the two Methuselah he decided to pull Tres into the fight, thinking that he would have an easier time. By this time Leon got up and joined in. Now, Abel's attention was divided among the four people. This was going to be a lot harder then he thought.

Asthe and Ion merely dodged Abel's attacks, but he knew they were in pain and would most likely have bruises even though he wasn't able to get any vitals. That only left Leon and Tres. Leon was a complete weakling in Abel's book, but he stayed at a distance and kept throwing silver rings at Abel, causing more trouble then he was worth. All ready, Abel had a few cuts because of them. Tres on the other hand was still pointing his gun, trying to aim at Abel, if he stopped moving for a split second, Abel had no doubt in his mind, that he would find a few bullets in his head.

'Might as well take out the weak link first, and then deal with the others' Abel thought. He slipped passed Asthe and Ion coming up behind, to attack leon. He pulled back his arm ready to strike when BANG Tres shot a bullet at Abel. Not thinking Abel dropped to all fours, just barley dodging the bullet. It sailed straight past him and hit Leon square in the shoulder.

"Gah," Leon shrieked in pain putting pressure to his shoulder. "That hurt you damn Tin Can." At his words the holographic lady appeared out of no where and started to yell out orders to Tres, telling him to take Leon to the infirmary. When they disappeared down the hall, Kate turned to Abel and began yelling at him.

"What were you thinking Abel? You should be sleeping not trying to pick a fight? What's gotten into you, now Leons hurt as well. Oh, Caterina is going to kill you." Kate yelled glaring at him. Abel wasn't paying attention to her at all, his eye's were locked on the blood on the floor.

It smelt horrible like old milk and rotten meat all mixed in one. The sour smell swept over to Abel. He almost couldn't stand, his head was throbbing and his vision was going blurry. He needed fresh air and fast. All of his senses where being screwed up with that blasted blood. He soon found himself on his knees with one hand on the ground while the other rubbed his temples. He squeezed his eye's shut trying desperately to push the dizziness away.

"HELLO! Abel Nightroad are you even listening to me!" Kate yelled. Her yelling wasn't making him feel any better, it was as if she took a sledge hammer and just hit him in the head with it. Abel moaned as he tried to push himself up onto his feet, still squeezing his eye's shut.

"Are you okay tovarish? Come on lets go get some fresh air." Asthe said in a whisper as she helped Abel to his feet. Asthe wasn't feeling to well herself after getting attacked by Abel, and the blood in the room wasn't helping her any. Besides if he really didn't remember any thing, it would be best if she got on his good side. 'Geez, he sure does have a bad temper, I wonder if he was like this when he was kid,' Asthe thought as she guided Abel out into the hall.

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><p><strong>Arthurs Note:<strong> _Thanks for all the reviews so far please continue to review for me if your reading this. Any way on a side note just so that everyone understands, Abel is not aware of what he is (crusnik) and neither is Asthe or Ion. Asthe doesn't even realize that the human blood is making Abel sick._

_Hope you liked it._


	4. Chapter 4 Entering the Church

Abel followed Tres and Leon to the gates of the vatican. The two vampires decided to stay in the Iron Maiden with Sister Kate, saying they wouldn't be welcomed into the vatican. When Abel questioned why, they changed their reason to the fact that they couldn't go out in the sun. Kate merely said, she needed to do some system updates on the air ship.

Abel sighed, his so called friends only told him that he was an AX agent under cardinal Caterina Sforza. They said his name was Abel Nightroad and that they were his friends. They didn't tell him anything else, like why he couldn't remember or how old he was. Wasn't he a little to young to be in the AX? He only looked like he was 12 for crying out loud. But, then again Leon had said that Abel was supposed to be taller and wear glasses. This was so confusing, maybe he was talking about another Abel.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when one of the guards stopped him. Leon and Tres, were already on the other side of the gate.

"Stop right there," the guards to the gate held, out their spears making them block his path so he couldn't get through. "Authorized personal only," one of the men continued.

Abel was just about to hit one of them when Leon turned around and snorted "he's with us."

Abel quickly went after him once the guards raised their spears and nodded to him, as if saying, 'sorry'. Once he was only a yard away, Tres and Leon continued to stride down the hall and took a left up the stairs. Abel made sure remember the layout of the vatican just incase he needed to escape. He even went as far as to count how many stairs there were, as well as remember all the nameplates on the doors.

Suddenly the two men stopped and told Abel to wait out here while they went inside. He took a seat right out side the door and began to think of what to say to this Caterina lady. But seeing as he had no memories of her, his mind drifted to what she would look like and if he should respect her or not. He sighed, well at least he would give her more respect then he had to Leon. That man had a big problem, something about him just ticked Abel off.

Abel sighed again, boy was he bored, he glanced at the clock watching the seconds hand move clock wise. The longer he stared at it, the slower it seemed, time was passing. Abel closed his eye's, wanting to get this over with and began to listen to what was going on in the room.

"So Abel also has amnesia?" Abel heard a lady say, no doubt it was Caterina.

"Positive," Tres replied. Leon snorted he still didn't believe that Abel was Abel.

"I see," Caterina paused then continued, "Tres I want you to report this to William and bring him here… Abel you can come in now," Caterina yelled. "Leon you can leave, I will take twenty years off your sentence like promised."

XXX

Abel entered the room unsure of what to say as the other AX agents left the room leaving him alone with Caterina. She gestured him toward a seat in front of her telling him silently to sit there. He obeyed. Sitting down, he stared at her as she did to him.

Caterina wore red robes with a matching hat. A white sash with two crosses printed on both ends, was on her shoulders. She had a monocle sitting over her right eye. Her blond curly hair looked like it was shining up against her red cloths. Her eye's were a piercing grey color that didn't show any signs of what she was thinking. Caterina's eye's alone set him on edge a little, and the monocle only made it worse, of course he wasn't scared enough to run away. He watched as she studied his features carefully before coming to a rest on his eyes.

"Tres has told me that you can't remember anything, is that true?" Caterina asked not once looking away from his eyes. "Even if it seems like a small detail, if you think about it more you might be able to remember something."

"When I woke up," Abel began, "I couldn't remember any thing at all, I didn't even know my name until Tres called me Abel." He paused thinking about how he felt he was nine hundred at one point, but pushed it away, he didn't want Caterina to think he was crazy. "Um, Leon called me four eyes, does that mean I used to wear glasses? I remember there was a pair of glasses right next to my change of cloths but when I looked through it, it was extremely blurry."

Abel could see a look of debate in Caterina's eye's as she thought on what to say to answer his question. Finally sighing she said, "yes you used to wear glasses." She looked like she had something else's to add but said no more on that topic and changed it completely.

"Here in the vatican we have three heads, The Pope, and two cardinals. The Pope is Alessandro and the other cardinal is Francesco di Medici, both of them are my brothers," Caterina updated Abel. She could tell, he knew that she was changing the topic on the glasses, and was grateful he didn't say anything. At least she knew that he was as sharp as ever. Although other people thought he was a klutz of and idiot, she smiled inwardly at the thought. "I am the leader of the AX and Francesco has his own guard called the inquisition, they are also charged with guarding the pope." She continued. "You are a member of the AX and your code name is Crusnik. As you have no memories I won't be giving you any missions yet."

Okay it was official she had Abel's respect. She was one of the three leaders and she had answered way more of his questions then the other's had, combined. She also had a great air of power to her. He could tell that she was hiding something from him, but he didn't care.

"If you don't mind, I want to have some tests done on you. To see how long your amnesia will last," and to make sure that the crusnik inside you won't take over, Caterina said keeping the last part out. "Professor William should be here shortly to take you to his lab." She noticed how Abel flinched and then made a funny look as if he didn't know why he had just done so.

Someone knocked on the door and entered the room. The man looked every bit like a gentleman. His brown hair was nicely combed back and he wore his cloths with dignity. He was biting down of the end of his pipe. Speak of the devil, it was the professor.

Abel looked at the man and back at Caterina a questioning look on his face. Was this the man he was to go with.

"Abel could you go outside for a while. I need to talk to William for a while," Caterina smiled sweetly at him. Abel frowned it was almost like she was treating him like a kid. "I need to make sure he does all the right tests," she explained. Abel nodded and slipped out the door still a bit mad.

Abel leaned against the wall deciding to stand and listened to the conversation inside the room.

"Here read this," Caterina said. Abel could hear the sound of rustling paper as William went through the notes. "I want you take blood tests and X-rays of his whole body. You are to find out how long he will have amnesia." Then she began to whisper, Abel could barely hear her, "... shrink and… Once you are done I want you to take him to the training field to see what level he's at and what type of missions I can send him on… And give him one of your tests that your giving your students."

"What are you talking about Caterina?"

"Give him a test on math, english, science, history, astronomy, and ethics… any test you've give to your students," she replied evenly. "I want to make sure that his intelligence hasn't disappeared along with his memories."

There was a long pause before William sighed, "just because he has amnesia, doesn't necessarily mean that he's forgotten how to read and count. But I will do so, I must admit I'm also interested to see just how smart he really is." There was a hint a laughter in his voice. "I will send my report by the end of the week then."

Abel could hear foot step nearing the door. A few seconds later William opened the door and looked down at him. "Well let go get those tests done, shall we?" William said with a warm smile.

Just before they were about to leave, Caterina appeared at the door and said, "Don't go getting into any fights Abel. I really don't want anyone here, hurt." She looked at him sternly. Abel resisted the urge to scowl, before nodding and following William.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_I'm reading other peoples fanfic and it's so long compared to mine. Some of them write seven to eight pages per chapter. I tried to make this one longer then the others, but it ended up being only three pages, when on a word document. Any way hope you all enjoy it. There's no action in this one so I will try to add more in the next chapters to come._

_If your reading this story please review. I want to know how you guys feel about it and how I can improve it._


	5. Chapter 5  1, 2, 3, FIGHT!

Abel followed William into his office. The desk was piled with books and the walls were lined with stacks of books and bookshelves. Everything looked so messy and everything that was on the bookshelves had dust on them. He resisted the urge to sneeze by scratching his nose, as he turned his attention back to William as he moved a stack a books away from another door.

"Sorry about the mess, my friend. I'll run the tests on you in this room." William said with an apologetic look on his face as he opened the door.

This room wasn't nearly as messy as the other. Every thing was put away neatly and there wasn't a speck of dust to be seen. It didn't look like a lab, it looked more like a place where William kept all of his trophies- experiments. "Have a seat over there," he gestured to the chair "I need to grab a few things" he explained as he opened a drawer, closed it, then opened another. "Here we go. Roll up your sleeve," William ordered Abel. He had a needle in his hand. "I need to take a blood sample." he explained. Abel did so and looked away as the professor wiped his arm then stuck the needle in it drawing blood.

Once done, William took a light, and shined it into Abel's ear and then eye's to make sure everything was okay. He also attached small white clips to Abel's temples to measure his brain waves but found nothing. With a sigh he handed Abel a stack a paper and told him to complete them by the end of the day. With that, he walked Abel down the hall into an empty room, and left him there to do what ever he pleased- well what ever he please with homework on the side.

Abel sat at the desk in the small room. It was void of anything except the small desk and chair, there wasn't even a window or anything. It almost seemed like a cell. 'Might as well get this over with,' Abel thought. He didn't really feel like taking any tests, but if it would help get his memories back he was all for it.

First was math, it started off with multiplying and dividing then moved on to the quadratic equation. There were things about algebra, geometry, and calculus he found it to be easy enough and finished it within ten minutes. Next was reading, he needed to find grammar errors and write an essay. This was also easy, and he finished this within ten minutes as well.

Abel paused scratching his head as he looked at the next topic, science. Why were they giving him such easy tests? Surely none of this would help get his memories back. He looked at the first question and answered it. 'What genetic changes make us uniquely human? Which of the following scientific classifications of the domestic dog is correct? In other words, which of the following is the proper way to name the domestic dog?' He scanned through each of the these questions without trouble, spending less then twenty seconds on each question, to write out his answer.

Now he only had three tests to do, astronomy, ethics and history. Abel put his pencil down and stood up, he had already finished half of the papers, and the professor said to get it done by the end of the day. He could come back and finish, once he explored the vatican a little.

Abel walked down the hall not caring where his feet were taking him. His thoughts were on what had happened today and the time he was fighting with his 'friends' in the iron maiden. The only memories he had was only of what happened in the past week. Taking a right at the next fork in the hall Abel found himself at the entrance of the garden. It spread out, with flowers, trees and a water fountain in the middle. In the back was a wall made up of hedges with a space in the middle. It looked like a maze so Abel went into it wondering which way to go.

He decided to take a right since he was right handed and never once took a left unless that was the only way he could go. Apparently he chose right, and ended up in the middle of the maze with a large water fountain. His hair whipped across his face as he cut toward the water fountain. Peering into the water he saw many coins people had thrown in, wishing for something. It sounded foolish to him, in the end their wishes wouldn't come true without them working for it themselves, and the church would clean the fountain keeping all the coins.

"Abel Nightroad, what are you doing here. According to my records you are supposed to be in room 115." Abel turned around to see Tres standing by the exit of the maze. When he didn't say anything Tres continued, "in the future refrain from going out without permission. Please follow me back to your room. You need to complete your tests." With that Tres turned around and Abel followed.

After thirty minutes Abel finished the rest of the tests. He only had a hard time on the history and ended up making stuff up, what ever came to mind first was what he wrote down. The questions that were multiple choice he also guessed and picked which ever one sounded cool or looked interesting. In the end though, he really didn't care and handed every thing to Tres who took the papers without a word and took it to William.

(An hour later)

Abel was totally bored and had even resorted to twirling his hair around his finger just to do something. Tres had told him to stay in the room and left him with nothing to do. If it wasn't for his good hearing he would have gone crazy within the first ten minutes. He had already eves dropped on the few of the nuns talking about how cute some Hugue guy was and had gotten a few snippets of a conversation with Caterina and another man whom Abel thought was Francesco. He was pulled away from listening to everyone when William entered the room.

"I had Tres grade your test and all of them had perfect scores except for the history" William said smiling down at Abel. "You got all the multiple choice questions right, somehow. But the writing questions were all wrong."

"How long will my amnesia last?" Abel asked, totally not caring about the test results.

Williams expression changed into a frown, "I wasn't able to figure that out." He said simply. "Now then, the day is still young and I still need to test out your ranking when it comes to fighting. Usually your rank is B."

Now this was something that wouldn't be boring. At least he wouldn't have to sit down doing paper work.

First he was sent to the target practice. Next Abel had to do a reaction time test, in which he had to dodge balls. Once he was done William took Abel to a small out door court where members of the AX and Inquisition where sparing. He told Abel to go to Caterina's office once the sun went down and left him there.

XXX

Two men were on the field, while everyone else watched them fight. One was a large blue haired man with a large spear called a screamer. The other was a man with a silver colored staff and long blond hair. Abel took a seat on the side of the bleachers away from everyone feeling like a loner. He saw Leon sitting farther away from him looking like he wanted to fight. But thanks to his shoulder he had to settle for watching. Abel almost felt sorry of the guy.

Bringing his attention back to the fight, Abel watched as the blond haired man swung his staff, as the other blocked it with his screamer. CLACK. CLANG. The sound of metal hitting metal was almost deafening to him. The blue haired man leapt in the air and jabbed his screamer at the man in a piercing motion. The end of the screamer rotating making a screeching sound. The blond ducked out of the way, sweeping his staff on the ground, trying to trip the other man. The blue mushroom head, stepped on the staff making it's master weaponless and pointed his screamer at the other mans neck. They then shook hands and the blond haired man walked to the bleachers to rest.

"So who want's to fight me next," The blue haired man yelled at the crowd. "The pope's agent Petro, Knight of Destruction!" His eye's scanned the crowd coming to rest on Leon shortly before continuing. His gaze then locked onto Abel and his expression changed to that of confusion as he looked at him. "Hey kid what's your name? Do you want to spare with me?"

"Sure," Abel replied not bothering to tell the man his name.

"HAHA. You're a brave one, I'll give you credit for that!" Petro shouted clapping Abel on his back. "So do you have any weapons you would prefer using?"

"Weapons? I don't need any, I can fight fine with my hands." Abel replied truthfully.

At this Petro laughed a few people also did so and shook their heads. "Hear that? The kid wants to fight Petro with no weapons," someone in the crowd said.

"If you won't use any weapons I won't either," Petro said looking at Abel with humor. "The rule's are simple, the first to fall looses."

Abel shook his head, "I don't want you to go easy on me just because I look young" Abel scowled at the taller man. "We'll both use weapons," Abel declared grabbing a sword. "We'll play by the same rules you used in the last match. Once we are in a position where we can't do anything anymore the match is over."

"Fine have it your way then, but I won't go easy on you," Petro said.

Once they were both in the middle of the field someone from the crowd shouted "3!" and everyone else joined. "2, 1, Fight!"

At the word 'fight' Abel jumped into the air, raising his sword over his head bringing it down once he was over Petro. Putting all his weight into the one attack. Petro clenched his teeth as he blocked the sword with his screamer then swiped it side ways, flying Abel to the side. He landed easily and faced Petro with his side, his sword was held out in front of him.

They both eyed each other before they both charged. Petro jabbed his screamer at Abel causing it to make a loud screeching sound. Then brought it to the ground. The teen easily dodged it by stepping to the side. He then sprinted toward Petro and pointed it at his neck. It was a victory short lived, because Petro kicked Abel from the side causing Abel to retreat a little.

"You've got some skill kid! You almost had me scared for a minute! Now I'll really, get serious." Petro said. "No more chances!"

Abel straightened his posture raising his sword to his side as stood up straight. It almost looked like he was taking up a fencing pose. "Hah, I thought you said you wouldn't give me any chances from the beginning. Were you lying when you said that?" Abel teased, a smirk played on his lips.

At this Petro charged wildly. Abel quickly ducked and flicked his sword upward hitting Petro's wrist. The taller man dropped his weapon and Abel continued his attack by sweeping his leg across the ground causing the other man to fall on his back. In one fluid motion, Abel stood up and pointed his sword at the other man's throat.

At first it was totally quiet, but after a few seconds the crowd bursted out into cheers. Everyone looked surprised even though some of the surprised looks were mixed with anger. One man looked very happy though as other's gave him money. It was Leon, the man had probably bet with half the people there that Abel would win. He had a wolfish grin on his face.

"I want a rematch!" Petro roared, jolting Abel's attention back to the man. "I went easy on you cause you were a kid!"

At hearing Petro's demand, people on the bleachers began shouting "REMATCH, REMATCH!" Most of them were those who had lost to Leon on the bet.

"Come on kid lets fight!" Petro yelled glaring at Abel. He wasn't going to let some kid beat him, the pope's agent. His pride was just to good to suffer from the humiliation.

"O~kay," Abel said, unsure of if he wanted to or not and looked back at the crowd. Leon was running toward him.

"Good job, Abel!" Leon said a wolfish smile on his face, "keep up the good work. I always knew you were an okay guy." Abel glared at Leon, "Ok fine, I didn't like you when we first met but… I do now and that's all that matters." Leon said patting Abel on the back with his good arm. Now whether he meant the other Abel or the Abel infront of him, was a total mystery. 'But I still don't think your four eyes,' he thought to himself as he walked back to the benches. 'Four eyes was way to weak,' he summarized.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Yay, I made 5 pages on this one. I was supper bored today so I ended up writing 2 chapters today. But knowing me I'll use that as an excuse to not write tomorrow.

If your reading this please review.


	6. Chapter 6 Drug affects

"This time we won't be using weapons," Petro told Abel as he threw his screamer to where the other weapons were. "This time who ever falls first looses."

Abel nodded not really caring; the crowd shouted "three, two, one, FIGHT!" just like the last time and Petro began to circle Abel, trying to figure out which side he should attack from. Abel just stood there waiting for Petro to make the first move.

Finally Mr. Mushroom head charged at Abels back,taking hold of one of his arms. Abel didn't hesitate to hit his elbow backwards, at the touch, causing Petro to release his arm. He turned around facing Petro squarely, a rather bored expression on his face. It was getting late and he needed to report to Caterina.

(Back in Caterina's office)

"His condition is worse then I had thought," William said, handing Caterina a folder and taking a seat across from her. "The crusnik nano machines are activated at higher level then it should be." He paused, "if Abel hadn't shrunk and lost his memories I wouldn't be concerned, however he isn't even aware of what he is or how to control the crusnik. If he gets injured he could end up attacking someone, or worse." William paused looking at Caterina, expecting her to say something.

"What about his amnesia? Do you know how long it could last?" Caterina asked. She wanted to have all the facts before making a decision of what to do.

William bit the stem of his pipe deep in thought wondering how he would answer this question. "Abel didn't hit his head. I think it's an other affect of the chemical that caused him to shrink. But I don't believe it was meant to give him amnesia only shrink him. I think- I think it's the crusnik inside him that caused the amnesia. Somehow the chemical changed when it touched the crusnik." William explained, frowning a little, 'that was the worst explanation I have ever given,' his frown deepened even more at the thought. "As for how long the amnesia will last I can't say."

Caterina had her fingers intertwined in front of her, as she studied Williams face looking over her hands. "Could drinking vampire's help him in anyway?"

"I can't say," William answered truthfully, "however at this point it can only help, if he drinks any blood it would at least satisfy the crusnik, and we wouldn't have to worry about him attacking anyone if he get's hungry.

Caterina nodded, "get the blood needed for Abel from the methuselah in prison. If my brother or anyone asks why you're taking it, say you're using it for an experiment." She flipped through all the papers, William had given her then raised an eye brow. "How did he do on the other tests?" She asked.

"Ah, that." William took out a paper from his own folder that he had been holding and handed it to Caterina. "It seems, he's been holding back on us, on how smart he actually is. He got all the questions right on all the tests, except for the history." He smiled around his pipe. "I must admit I never expected him to be _that _smart. Abel also did a whole lot better on his field tests as well. For the shooting he got a perfect score, he didn't even miss once. The agility dodging, test was also easy for him. It almost seemed like he was holding back, all those times when he had done it before." William shook his head, as if saying he didn't quite believe it himself. "Last time he took the test he had missed a few targets and had got hit by a few balls."

"So it's safe to say that he'll be fine if I put him on a mission, correct?" Caterina asked. She wasn't surprised abel had been holding back on all his tests before. When she had been a child Abel had rescued and ever since she always knew he was powerful even when he wasn't in his crusnik form. Although he had always acted like a klutz and idiot in front of others he would always act seriously in private talks with her. However he still behaved like he was a weakling and that part irritated her to no end. At least now she had proof that Abel was anything but weak, once he got his memories back he was in for some serious scolding. Caterina smiled inwardly at the thought.

"Yes he should be fine," William answered.

Caterina nodded, "by the way, where is Abel now?"

"He's at the sparing fields. I told him to come report to you at sunset, so he should be here any minute" William replied.

Caterina nodded her head again, "thank you for the report, you may leave."

XXX

The sun was going down and fast. Many people had already left to turn in for the day, the only people still watching was Leon and those who had betted against him.

Abel stood in the middle of the field looking at the tired form of Petro. The man looked as if he were about to keel over at any minute. Sweat was dripping from his face as he glared at Abel in defiance. Abel on the other hand didn't feel tired at all and wasn't sweating at all.

"Haha, your pretty strong for a kid. But it ends now!" Petro roared at as he charged for Abel, aiming to punch him in the gut. His hand was caught by Abel easily. Not wanting to prolong the fight any longer, Abel twisted his hand and grabbed Petro's arm in the other. Turning his back to Petro Abel easily threw the man over his shoulder, causing him to land with a thud on the ground. Finally it was over. Well it would have been over a long time ago but Abel, was bored and had nothing better to do.

"Thanks for the match," Abel said to Petro his voice calm. "It's getting late and I really need to be somewhere so I'll see you later." With that Abel turned on his heels and sprinted to Caterina's office. He hoped he wasn't late.

Leon watched Abel run, boy was that kid good or what? Tomorrow he would be going to jail as a rich man. Not only that but instead of getting 5 years off his sentence he got 20 all thanks to his shoulder. And man, the look on Petro's face was priceless, never had he seen a man so confused and winded at the same time.

XXX

Abel knocked the door the stepped in, "William told me to come here after sunset."

"Come have a seat," Caterina said. "Are you thirsty? I have some red wine if you like." She said pushing a cup of Methuselah blood toward Abel. "Don't worry there no Alcohol in it." She said hurriedly at Abel's confused look.

Abel sat down then looked at the cup. "Thank you," he said grabbing the cup, he wasn't really thirsty. But the red drink did smell good. "Um, you wanted to talk to me about something?" He asked, glancing at the cup in his hands again before looking at Caterina. He felt a bit weird.

"Yes," Caterina started, "William has given me your test results and you seem to be able to handle your self well in battle, despite having amnesia. Since you seem to be better off then I originally thought I'm giving you a mission."

Abel nodded, He was no longer looking at Caterina at all. Though he was listening to every word he said his eye's were locked on the cup. He breathed through his nose again. The enticing fragrant of the drink drift over to him. What was this strange feeling? Abel clamped his empty hand over his mouth. Something was extremely wrong, he could feel his teeth being pushed aside by his canines. Was this normal?

"Something wrong Abel?" Caterina asked.

"No, I'm fine" Abel said bringing the cup to his lips, drinking it in a few famished gulps. As he did so he could feel warmth going through his body, he almost felt stronger. He also didn't feel as hungry as he did before. He could feel his canines go back into his gums and his teeth shift back. "So what's this mission about?" Abel asked setting the empty cup back on the table, looking into Caterina's steely grey eye's.

**A/N: **Hope you guys like this chapter. If your reading this please review.


	7. Chapter 7 Working on Peace

Abel felt his teeth with his tongue as he looked at Caterina. The wine she had given him had a bitter taste that was laced with something sweet. A small after taste still played on his tongue.

"I'm sending you and Gunslinger to the ghetto's of Albion," Caterina said. At Abel's confused look she said, "Tres." She was going to have to get used to updating Abel on everyones code names, it's almost like hiring someone entirely new to the AX she noted. "Your mission is to bring back another member of the AX, father Havel. He was sent there on a mission prior, to gather information on a group of vampires that we've been tracking for sometime now," Caterina explained. "It's not a very hard mission and it's very unlikely that you will be attacked, but it's best to be prepared just incase."

"Is that all?" Abel asked politely standing up from his chair.

"It is," Caterina replied, "if you don't mind I want you to wait here, Tres should be coming back any minute now; to take you to your room. You must be tired."

"I'm not tired," Abel said truthfully, still standing. Caterina was about to say something but the door opened and Tres stepped in.

"Nightroad I will now take you to your room," He said not even looking at Caterina. With that he turned around and exited the room. Abel followed him reluctantly.

Once at the room, Tres opened the door for Abel who obediently walked in. The android closed the door and walked back the way they had come, probably to report back to Caterina.

Abel sighed, he wasn't really tired. He looked at the nearly empty room, It had a bed in the corner by the window and a small coffee table with two chairs. There was another smaller table with a lamp, by his bed. He stayed near the door waiting for Tres' footsteps to fade, before he slipped out. There was still half of the vatican he hadn't seen yet.

(Back in the Iron maiden)

"Morning Count," Asthe said (switching terran time to methuselah time) to the sleepy form of Ion as he walked into the control room of the Iron Maiden. "You're such an early bird why don't you go back to sleep?" Athse asked sarcastically.

"Hey it's not my fault I went to sleep late," Ion said hotly.

"Yeah? Then who's fault is it?" Asked Asthe already knowing the answer. Ion ignored her and took a seat across from her, helping himself to the breakfast. "Father Tres came just awhile ago. He said we will be leaving at night (morning in Terran time) and that they would drop us off at the empire," Asthe updated the count.

"What about Father Nightroad? Is he coming with us?" Ion asked through his bites.

"Yes, he is. After they drop us off they're heading to Albion to do a mission. He didn't tell me what the mission was though." Asthe sounded disappointed when she said the last bit.

"You know its really hard to believe that, that's father Nightroad." Ion paused, "it's kind of weird calling him 'Father' when he looks younger then me; even though he is, being a terran and all but still... In fact I find it strange just addressing him by his last name, it just doesn't feel right. I think I'm going to start calling him Abel for now," Ion said poking around at his food.

"That might be for the best," Asthe said drinking the methuselahs water of life. "In the end not even I'm sure if I should consider him, as the same man I met a couple years ago."

"I hope he get's his memories back soon," Ion said. "As for him shrinking, he can just grow up all over again, after all terrans do age faster then us.

"Mmm-hmm," Asthe mumbled, biting into a apple. Swallowing she said, "we need to think about what to report to the empress. We were given a mission and we failed. I really don't want to be the one to deliver such news." She said truthfully, she looked almost disgusted by the thought of having failed the empress.

"Not necessarily," Ion replied now looking up at Asthe. "We might not have captured the ones who caused the sudden energy out burst, but we did find out who caused it. We also destroyed some their puppets and damaged the building, at the very least we temporarily forced them to stop whatever they had planned. The empress is very understanding person, if we tell her the truth I'm sure she'll forgive us," Ion said. "Plus I took this from one of the methuselah that wasn't being controlled." Ion held out a paper to Asthe, a triumphant look on his face.

"What is it?" Asthe asked, looking at it. "It's not written in any language that I know."

"I'm not to sure myself," the count said looking disappointed. "The methuselah I took it from was in one of the meeting rooms that I infiltrated. I think it's some type of plan or blue print. As for the language, we can have one of the professors in the empire translate it."

XXX

It was already midnight and Abel still wasn't tired. He already explored the places of the vatican that he hadn't been to, during the day, and when he was done with that he walked around the whole vatican again. He had even gone as far as to sprint around the whole vatican in hopes that he would get tired. It was as if he had an extremely bad sugar rush, or had drank coffee.

Abel stopped in front of Caterina's office. He could see a light shinning through the crack under the door and could hear Caterina's frustrated grunt as she crumpled up another paper and threw it in the trash can. He knocked on the door then opened it a crack, peeking into the room before stepping inside.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping, Abel?" Caterina asked.

"Shouldn't you," he retorted. "I'm not tired. But I can tell you are, let me guess you haven't slept in over 24 hours. You really should get some rest."

Caterina looked up from her work. "You know, you said the same thing to me once when we first met." Sighing she said, "If you don't sleep then you won't grow."

Abel ignored her, "what are you working on? Maybe I can help. If I can't then I'll go to sleep."

"I highly doubt you can help me with any of this, even when you had your memories you always hated politics," she said shaking her head.

"Just let me see," Abel snatched up the paper she had been reading and began reading it.

"Abel, go to sleep _now._ You're leaving in six hours from now, and I don't want to have Tres carry you into the Iron Maiden. Give me the papers." She held out her hand, looking at him through steely grey eye's.

"A peace treaty with the empire," Abel ignored her and took a seat. "That sounds like a good idea," he said handing the papers back to Caterina. "You know if your having a hard time coming up with ideas, you should get some sleep and then think about it tomorrow. By sleeping you're letting your mind rest and you will have a better understanding of it in the morning." He grabbed a blank peace of paper and a pen that was on Caterina's desk.

"Start by answering the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Once you have that it should be easier. We already know the who, it's the vatican and the Empire." He said writing the names down on the paper. "So what will the Vatican do as part of the treaty and what will the Empire do? In what ways can you help each other out?"

"We can trade with them and help each other during war." Caterina said, she almost felt like a child being guided by her mentor on what to do.

"Okay so we've got trading, and fighting against a common enemy when war breaks out," Abel said writing every thing down. "Lets add donating blood to the empire and funding hotels that will have UV protection windows for the methuselah that come to visit Rome. If we show that we don't discriminate agains them by allowing them to come here, the Empire would be more likely to do the same for us." Abel explained as he wrote down his ideas on the side. "You can change it if you want later, these are just some random ideas." He shrugged looking back at the paper and began to mumble to himself as he wrote more down on each topic. When Abel ran out of space he grabbed another paper and began to write on that one. Once in a while he would pause to ask Caterina a question or two about the Empire or about what he thought about his ideas. Caterina also asked him a fair amount of questions about 'why' he wrote what he did. Finally at the end of five hours Abel couldn't think of anything else to write so he handed the stack of notes to Caterina, as well as the outline he had made for her.

"Here," He said handing her everything, "If you don't understand what something is or why it's important look back at the notes. I also made an outline you don't have to use it if you don't want to, but it has all the key points that you should add to the treaty."

"Thank you for your help Abel." Caterina said looking him straight in the eye. "Are you still not tired?" She asked.

He shrugged, "no, I'm not" he answered. "You should probably sleep in the next two hours, that way you can go over everything and sleep on it. By the way, where am I supposed to go for the mission? Was I supposed to report to you first or go straight to the Iron maiden." He asked, his face was as calm as ever and he didn't even look tired.

"Tres was supposed to get you from your room and bring you to me before you went to the Iron Maiden." She paused, "the only reason I wanted him to bring you to me was to make sure you were okay," Caterina confessed. "I see now that I didn't need worry since you were with me all last night and seemed to be fine. The only thing that concerns me is you not sleeping." She sighed. "Once Tres finds you're not in your room he'll come here. In the mean time, do you want something to eat?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Oh God please save me now. Please let my school's power go out, and if it doesn't then please, please, please help me on the quiz. On that note help everyone who has tests and quizzes and projects that are due tomorrow.

Please excuse my sudden outburst and prayer to God. ANYWAY... Hope you liked this chapter. Please review.


	8. Chapter 8 Note Translations

Tres had met Abel just like Caterina said he would at exactly 6 a.m. If the android had come a little later Abel felt he would go crazy. That woman could drive any sane man, mad, by just staring at him.

(30 minutes ago)

Abel chewed on one of his sandwiches, a sister had brought in for him and Caterina a little earlier. The silence was beginning to get to him, not that he wanted to talk to her or anything but still. They just sat there eating the food and staring at each other. It had been easier ignoring the woman when he had been thinking about the treaty. He wished she would read the notes and stop looking at him. When was that blasted android going to get here anyway?

(Present time)

"This is your gun," Tres said in his normal monotone voice, handing Abel a revolver. Abel took the gun and opened the chamber revealing six silver tipped bullets. He snapped his wrist closing the chamber and put the gun on a coffee table in the middle of the control center.

"Okay, well the count and I are going to sleep. We only stayed up because we wanted to welcome you," Asthe said to Tres.

"Affirmative."

The two methuselah nodded to Abel and took their leave. Once they were down the hall Abel opened the book he had been holding all this time and sat on the couch. "Father Nightroad, you need to sleep as well, as per orders of Caterina Sforza. If you are not well rested you will become a burden in the mission if we are attacked. Go to your assigned room and sleep," Tres told Abel his voice emotionless.

When Abel made no move to move Tres aimed his gun at Abel. Typical android behavior. "I'm not tired," Abel said in a voice that matched Tres' calm one. "The mission doesn't even officially start until we get to Albion," Abel flipped the page again and put his head down onto the arm of the couch. He kicked his boots off and swung his legs onto the couch so that he was now laying face up with his book in his hand.

"I will not allow you to be a burden on the mission. If you-" Tres cut off when Abel spoke.

"I'll go to sleep when I'm tired," Abel started not once looking away from the book. "Don't worry if I am a burden then just leave me, at least then I can distract the enemy for a little." This android sure was persistent.

"Affirmative," Tres replied, putting his gun back into the hoister. Well, that was easier then expected.

(Three days later)

"You know if you continue to ignore people, you won't make any friends," Asthe preached to Abel. "All you've been doing is read that book, and if I'm not mistaken this is your forth time reading it." Asthe grabbed Abel's arm and began to pull at it to get him to stand up. "Come on, say something damn it," she yanked at his shirt and pulled him up to her face.

"What do you suggest I do? I can't exactly talk to any of you, since I don't even know you. Besides the book is interesting." Abel looked into Asthe's eyes calmly.

"You know, the old you would have at least tried to talk to us," she motioned to everyone in the room. Tres, Ion and the holographic figure of Kate who had her back turned to them. She was reading something on a computer. Abel looked at them and scrunched up his nose at the sight of Ion dropping a red tablet into a cup of water. Asthe threw Abel back onto the couch, snatching away his book. "What's so great about this old book, anyway?" She asked.

"Give it back," Abel ordered trying to grab it, if only he had longer arms. A scowl appeared on Asthe's features as she flipped through the book.

"What in the world?" Asthe breathed, looking at the book. "It almost looks like-" she broke off shaking her head. "What language is this?"

"It's in German, now give it back," Abel said with a face that said 'duh.'

"German?" Asthe looked at Abel totally confused. She turned to Ion who had now come to see what all the commotion was about. "Can you give me the paper with the strange writing?"

"Sure but why?" Ion asked as he fished it out the paper from his pocket, handing it to Asthe.

She abruptly snatched the paper out of his hands and pushed it into Abel's. "Is this German? Can you read it?"

Abel opened up the folded paper and glared at Asthe before turning his attention back to the paper. "It's not German, it's Scottish." He said and shoved the paper back at Asthe, grabbing his book before she could even react.

"So can you read it or not," Asthe demanded waving the paper in front of Abel face.

Ion looked from Asthe to Abel, trying to piece together why Asthe thought the terran could translate a message that not even a methuselah could. He looked down at the book that Abel had opened up and gasped at what he saw. That wasn't a language he knew. He grabbed the book and got an angry shout from Abel in return. "You're able to read this?" He asked looking down at the smaller boy.

"Yes I can," Abel snorted not getting why it was so important. "Do you mind? I'm trying to read here!"

"Tell us what the note says then we'll leave you alone," Ion said keeping the book out of reach.

If they didn't claim to be his friends, and if Caterina hadn't told him not to pick any fights, Abel would have punched these two by now. "Why should I, translate it for you, I'm not getting anything out of it. Besides I already read that book four times. Give me one good reason why and I'll consider it." Abel said crossing his arms over his chest as he stared up at them in defiance.

"Just translate it!" Ion and Asthe commanded in unison. Abel said nothing and reached over for his gun on the table. He wasn't going to do anything for them unless they gave him an answer first. He looked over his gun before opening up the chamber and taking all the bullets out. Abel continued picking at every screw and bolt of the revolver before he finally found a loose one and started to pick at it. By the time they finally said something Abel had taken apart more then half the gun and had all the pieces laid out on the table.

"I stole the note, from a member of the Rosenkreuz Orden," Ion said. They are a mysterious group that the empire has been hunting down, the vatican has also been searching for them. Is that good enough for you?" At his last words Abel was finally done taking apart the gun and looked up at him. The thousands of pieces that made up the gun was spread over the whole table.

"Fine, but I know you're not telling me the whole story," Abel said, taking the paper Asthe handed out to him. He looked at it for a while before finally starting to read. Once he was done he scanned the whole thing again to make sure he wasn't missing anything. "The beginning part is a list a places, I think it's supposed to be where their bases are." He glanced at the paper. "One's in Londinium, Albion the other is in Uber Berlin in the Germanicus Kingdom and the last is in Estonia." Abel looked up from the paper. "The other half is mission report from someone called Puppet Master. It seems he has successfully infiltrated Albion and is going to kill the Queen by using a new drug they have just made. They are calling the drug DKS for demons kill silently. It's supposed to cause immense pain in small out brakes. The out brakes are supposed to be when one sleeps so theres really no way to get any help. Over time, after someone is exposed to the drug, they will die. They only did one test on a human and he died exactly one year after being exposed… According to this it was down to the exact hour. Animal have died after one month," Abel paused and glanced back at the paper again. "It also won't show in any tests done once the drug is used," he ended, and handed the paper back to Asthe.

Asthe and Ion stared at Abel and the paper wide eyed as if they couldn't believe what they where hearing. "We need to tell the queen," Ion finally said.

"Think," Asthe said, lightly tapping ion on the head, "we're methuselah I highly doubt the queen will take our advice. We would end up in jail as soon as we told them."

To the two methuselah, Abel looked like he could care less about what the note had said. He was putting his gun back together, like a child would with a puzzle. Even though he wasn't partaking in their conversation he was listening to them intently and would nod every once in a while.

"But Albion has a mixture of Methuselah and Terrans," Ion said, "I'm sure she would listen to us if she saw the note."

"They might have methuselah but they all live in the ghetto's and are forced to serve their kingdom against their will." Asthe said

"If you plan on telling the queen you might want to do it with a representative from the Vatican." Abel finally spoke up surprising the two. "If two world powers came to warn the queen she will be more likely to listen. On top of that the Vatican and Albion have a peace treaty unlike the empire." Abel didn't take his eye's off his gun, when he explained his reasoning.

"That sounds like a good idea but we still need to ask the empress, and show her the note." Asthe said

"Once we get to the Empire I will send a message to Caterina," Abel said.

Suddenly Kate appeared out of nowhere and yelled at Abel. "I've been listening to the conversation this whole time, and although your idea sounds great, the Iron Maiden doesn't have enough energy to send a message to Caterina. Have you forgotten that you have your own mission to take care of first?"

"I'm sure that the Empress will allow you to use our communicators," Ion said, "and since you'll be in Albion anyway, we can hit two birds with one stone."

Kate sighed "well if you put it that way, I have no problems."

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><p><strong>AN: **Thank's for all the reviews everyones been writing. Flame800900 you were right, reviews really do help when you have writers block. I was thinking about what to write all day today at school and I finally thought of something when I got home. Please review if you're reading this, it'll inspire me to write more.

Just incase you have any questions. This takes place before Esther become queen, so the queen Abel mentions is her grandmother.


	9. Chapter 9 Remembering part 1

(A few days later)

"It's nice being able to feel the sun on our skin," Ion commented. "Finally we're back home." Ion was leaning over the railing of the Iron Maiden, his hair whipped across his face. He felt like jumping off the ship instead of waiting for it to land.

Asthe turned to Abel, Tres, and Kate. "Thanks for bringing us back. When Ion and I report back to the Empress we'll tell her about the message and our plan." To Abel she said, "I think you should come with us, to read -to her- exactly what the message says." She paused, "Tres and Kate can stay in my estate until we come back."

Abel nodded his head and was about to say something but Tres beat him to it. "I need to keep watch on Crusnik at all times."

Asthe looked like she was about to fight back but knew it wouldn't change his mind, "fine" she sighed reluctantly, "but you will stay outside of the room when we report to the empress."

"Affirmative," came the reply.

(At the Palace)

Baybars was outside of the empress' living quarters. When he heard people walking toward him, he put his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to attack. "It's just us Baybars we returned from our mission and are here to report back to the Empress," Ion said when he came into sight.

Baybars didn't make a move to release his sword, "what about them," he nodded at Tres and Abel.

"He has something to tell the empress," Ion pointed at Abel, "Father Tres is just here to watch over him, when we report to the empress he'll be staying outside."

A door next to Ion opened suddenly and a blur tackled Ion. The boy yelped in surprise when a blond haired female methuselah hugged him, "Ion, you're back."

"Grandmother?" Ion asked, the boy looked confused, happy and embarrassed at the same time. He gave his grandmother a quick hug before pushing her away from him.

Just then, a small figure dressed in green with a veil over her face stepped out from the door, Baybars was guarding. Upon seeing her, all the methuselah in the room bowed, dropping to their knee and putting a hand to their heart. Well, all but Ion's grandmother bowed; she only nodded her head. "It's nice to see you again, Ion, Asthe." The figure paused as she looked at them and the people they had brought back, "I'd like to hear your report, but this is hardly the place to do it. Lets go into one of the meeting rooms."

"Yes, your majesty," Ion and Asthe said in unison, standing up.

"Baybars take them into one of the conference rooms, I need to check something. I'll be there when I'm done." Augusta turned to Mirka and said "come with me."

Baybars nodded his head and started to lead the way down the hall. Mirka followed the empress into her room. When the door closed Mirka spoke up, "that kid, looked like your brother," she commented. "He looks just like the emperor in the pictures that only one from the Fortuna family has access to." Mirka sat down in a chair while the empress went into a changing room.

"So you thought so too." The empress came out of the changing room, no longer wearing her veiled hat. Her voice sounded a lot younger then it had when she was speaking through her veil, outside. She had short raven black hair and green eyes, she looked just a bit younger then Abel did. She had a faded picture in her hand and was looking at it. 'I only just saw him a few months ago, and I pretty sure he wasn't a little kid. That kid looks so much like him even his frown is similar,' she thought. So many scenarios were running around in her head. She glanced at the picture in her hand again trying to remember every detail about her brother's face before she set the picture down on the table and placed her hat on her head again. "Come on, lets go hear that report. If he really is my brother then we'll find out, just don't ask him any direct questions," her voice, was again distorted to sound like an older woman.

XXXX

The conference room Baybars had lead them to, had a white board on one of the walls and a map on another. In the middle was a large rectangular table that could seat over twenty people. A black leather couch was pushed to side of the wall way in the back and next to both arms was a small coffee table. In the very front of the room near the door was a large water jug with cups stacked on top of it.

Tres and Baybars stayed outside the room while Abel, Ion, and Asthe entered. The two methuselah sat on the right side of the table with only one chair between them. Abel sat on the other side, in front of Ion. Once seated Ion took out the folded paper, that Abel had translated and looked at it as if he were reading the words.

"So how exactly did you know this was in Scottish," Ion asked, eyeing the paper and trying to find a word he would recognize.

"How am I supposed to know that?" Abel snapped. "I got amnesia, remember? I don't even know how old I am or when my birthday is. I can only guess and say that I'm 12." He glared at Ion, this really wasn't a topic he wanted to talk about but he was so mad and frustrated that he couldn't stop venting out all his anger. "I don't know how I met the two of you and still haven't met all the AX members. My room at the AX is practically empty, and that doesn't help me in discovering one fact about who I really am. For all I know my name might not even be Abel Nightroad and you guys aren't really my friends, but my enemy." He growled listing off everything that irritated him about how he couldn't remember. Of course he knew these people didn't lie to him about his name but that didn't mean he hadn't thought about it. "Ugh, I don't even know if I have any siblings." Abel slammed his hand on the table causing the sound to echo off the walls. He wanted to say more but stopped himself when he heard people walking to the door.

When Augusta and Mirka entered the room they didn't expected to find a pissed looking Abel and two surprised looking Methuselah. The boy was glaring darts at Ion and Asthe and the two of them just looked at Abel as if they were at lost for words. When the Augusta took a seat at the head of the table, Abel finally turned to look at her. Mirka sat between Ion and Asthe.

"Your report, Ion, Asthe," the Empress turned her head to the two methuselah. For once she was glad for the veil because it covered her eye's and allowed her to study Abel's face.

"Upon arriving in Lithuania we met up with Father Abel Nightroad," Asthe spoke up. Abel jerked his head up when he heard his name, willing her to continue. "He took us to his hotel room and the next day at 12 midnight we infiltrated the warehouse in the harbor. We didn't find the cause to the sudden spike in energy however we believe it has something to do with the Rozenkreuz Orden." Asthe paused to have Ion explain his reasoning and the note.

"I went into a room and took this paper from a man in there. It seemed like they were having a meeting or something and the paper looked important," Ion began, trying to think of what to say about the note being in a weird language. "We believe it's a plan to kill the current queen of Albion using a new type of drug," Ion handed her the paper and quickly added, "It's not in any language we know but Abel can translate."

Augusta took the paper and looked it over. She could tell that it was written in Scottish and could make out a few words but she couldn't read the whole thing like Abel could.

She knew Abel was her brother now because he could actually read Scottish which is an ancient language. In fact her brother could speak almost every language fluently. His name was also Abel Nightroad which only added to the evidence. Augusta knew he had amnesia because she heard his whole rant all the way down the hall, the only thing she didn't understand was how he had shrunk. She wanted to ask Asthe or Ion but didn't know how without arising any suspicion. Luckily Mirka spoke up.

"Isn't Abel Nightroad supposed to be twenty years old," she asked.

Augusta looked up from the paper, "that's right I remember him being much older. What aren't you telling us. I'm sure Abel here would like to know as well. Or do you plan to lie to me?"

Ion and Asthe both looked up surprised, making a face as if they would rather die then lie to the empress. "Abel had a plan to split up into two groups when we infiltrated the base. Asthe and I were together and he was by himself. I'm not to sure what had happened but he crashed through a wall and was in pain so we tried treating him." Ion said his gaze fixed on the wall as he recalled what happened. "We took him back to the hotel and Asthe called the Vatican when I noticed that he was shrinking, a few hours after our attack" Ion ended.

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><p><strong>AN:** Thanks for all the reviews please continue writing them it really helps.

Chaos: you have reviewers block? That's hard to believe, your reviews are great and it makes me laugh when ever you talk to DH. Maybe you should try writing a fanfic, who knows you might actually enjoy it. If you do I'll be sure to read it.

Flame800900: Thanks for giving me permission to use your characters, I know I'll end up mentioning them later on in the story.


	10. Chapter 10 Hiding

Okay that settled it the little kid was Abel. Augusta sighed, taking off her hat and veil. She could hear Ion and Asthe gasp at what she had done. Although they already knew that her name was actually Seth and knew what she looked like she couldn't blame them for their reaction. After all, to them she was revealing who she was to a terran from the Vatican.

"wha-"

Augusta raised up her hand to stop Ion, "I'm only trying to see if I can trigger a memory after all he did see me back during the conspiracy."

Abel looked at the girl in front of him, he knew her somehow. She just looked so familiar, Abel raked his brain for answers. His mind coming up with ten different solutions all at once and then another ten. Empress, friend, doctor... secret agent? Then it clicked he didn't know how, but he knew the girl was his sister. But how was that possible? She was supposed to be over 800 years old and although Ion had said he shrunk, that didn't exactly make up for the age difference.

He said nothing and continued to stare at her, he didn't want to say what he knew with other people there. Plus, it was a bit far fetched. "I'm sorry, but I really can't remember anything," Abel said in calm voice. If Augusta hadn't taken her veil off, he would have yelled at Ion for not telling him the whole situation sooner.

Augusta nodded, looking at her brother with hope that he would remember soon. "I'm sorry that you have lost your memory. You need not be formal with me when in private talks, you can just call me Seth. After all when you had left the empire you had been my friend," She said, giving him a friendly smile. "Now then, we need to do something about this note. I can read a little of it, but I can't translate the whole thing; do you mind translating it Abel?"

Taking the paper, Abel translated it word for word, pausing only once or twice to rearrange the wordings. He also added a few things he had missed when telling Asthe what it meant. Once done Seth made a few suggestions on what to do and one of her plans was exactly the same as the one Abel had suggested a day ago. When everything was accounted for, Seth pressed a button under the table and the white board on the wall flickered to life.

"We can call the vatican using this," Seth said. "It'll take a while to get a good connection and Caterina might not even be able to take the call but we can try." She paused, "It could take a day at the best or a week at the worst," she had a frown on her face as she said this. "Abel, you and Tres can stay in the palace while you wait for this call to get through. I don't want to trouble Asthe with taking care of my guests again."

"It wasn't a problem at all," Asthe stammered. "It's fine if they stay at my house."

Seth shook her head, "I pushed them into a fight that I shouldn't have, and put Abel in danger. The least I can do is offer him a place to stay. Besides, when we finally get a connection it would be best if Abel's around to confirm what I'm saying. If he's not, then Lady Caterina Sforza might not believe me." Seth said almost sternly.

"Thank you," Abel bowed his head to Seth. "I promise I'll try not to be a burden to you."

(two days later)

If Seth wasn't the empress and didn't have to keep a straight front she would have screamed her head off in frustration by now. Abel had some kind of weird sixth sense that made him aware of where she was. Every time she came near him he would suddenly disappear or busy himself or he would go by Tres. The only time he didn't disappear or wasn't with anyone was when he slept. How the hell was she supposed to talk to him and tell him who he really was if he kept avoiding her. Seth stormed off down the hall heading to her room to prepare for her next conference with the nobles.

Abel went onto the balcony and jumped onto the roof when he heard Seth pass by his room. This was really getting tiring. He wanted to talk to her and ask her if she was really his sister but didn't know how. He just wished to get the mission over with as fast as he could and then go back to the AX and confront Caterina. Why hadn't anyone told him he shrunk? That was one of the key pieces to the his memory. He jumped back down when he was certain Seth was further down the hall.

In the past two days Ion and Asthe had told Abel how they had met him, and about a red haired nun named Ester. They told him about his involvement in the conspiracy case and about the Rozenkreuz orden. Tres on the other hand only said he had super bad eye sight and had given Abel a negative number that he would rather not remember. Tres said that his shooting skills were B rank and that his fighting skills were B-. The android was no help at all and only continued to list off Abel's stats.

Abel exited his room and walked down the hall, heading to the conference room they were using to get in touch with Caterina. On his free time Abel almost always found himself there or in the library looking for a book to read. He preferred reading in the conference room because the library had to many people, and his room was always the place Seth looked for him.

When he got there Abel was surprised to find the white board blinking green. Seth had said that it would begin blinking once they got a clear connection to the vatican. Now all they had to do was call Caterina. Abel set his book on the table and walked out of the room, he needed to get the empress so that they could tell Caterina about the note.

Thirty minutes later Seth was running down the hall at a speed that every methuselah would envy, Abel was right on her heels only a foot away. She wondered if he even realized how fast he was running. As soon as Abel saw the connection was ready he had caught up with Seth before she went to meet with the nobles. Once he told her about it, she left a note for Baybars to deliver to the secret council and left for the room.

In the room Seth pressed a button under the table and the screen made a whirling sound as it began to turn on. It took only a minute until Caterina's image flickered into focus.

"Your, Highne-," Caterina stopped when she saw Augusta wasn't the only one in the room, "Abel?" She asked in a steely voice, "You should have been in Albion by now, what are you doing."

Abel opened his mouth, about to say something when Augusta beat him to it. "We believe the Queen of Albion is going to be murdered." She cut straight to the chase, not really feeling like playing a game of politics at the moment. Caterina's face flickered in surprise but it was gone second later. "We have a note that led us to believe this. It's written in Scottish an ancient language and Abel can read it." She held out the paper to the Screen. While Abel again explained what the note said.

Caterina nodded her head when Abel was done explaining, "very well as an add on to your first mission you must also warn the queen and try to find the puppet master as well as infiltrate their base in Albion."

When Caterina signed out, Abel made a quick move for the door, but Seth put her self between him and his only means of escape. She took off her veil and hat, revealing her face. She was scowling down at Abel. Her heels making her taller then she actually was.

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><p>AN: I ended up getting free time during class so I finished the chapter early today. Well it's probably late for you guys, on the mainland... Anyway hope you like it.


	11. Chapter 11 Remembering part 2

The screen flickered off, and Caterina returned her attention, back to the now complete document of the treaty. She had made two copies of it, one for her and the other for the empire. She would be sending it to them soon and would hopefully get their treaty document as well. Both of them would get together at an appointed time in front of congress, and sign both treaties. If Abel hadn't helped her, she doubted that she'd be done by now; and even if she was, it wouldn't be as good as the one they had.

"Deliver this to William and have him look it over. If he has nothing to change have him send it to the New Human Empire," Caterina ordered Hugue, handing him one of the documents.

Hugue said nothing and nodded, taking the paper and exiting the room.

A few minutes later William exploded into Caterina's office, Hugue hot on his heels still holding the documents. William had a wild grin on his face and a test tube in his hand that was filled with a red substance and was capped. Caterina had a feeling it was Abels blood. "Caterina, I have excellent news," William exclaimed. "It seems that the Crusnik machines are dormant again, so we don't have to worry about Abel loosing control. Since they are dormant I believe Abel should be getting his memory back anytime soon. All he needs is someone or something to trigger it. However how much of his memory he'll regain or what part, I can't be to certain." William gasped for air as he tried to explain everything at once. "Unfortunately I have found nothing on Abel's shrinking problem. It might just be easier to let him grow up again." His mood dropped drastically at this last bit of news.

Caught off guard by Williams sudden out burst, Caterina was unsure about what to say and instead she gave him one of her steely smiles. "You know, it's rude to not knock," She said lamely. "Hugue has the treaty I made for you, he was supposed to give them to you, but then you came storming in here." At her words Hugue quietly handed the papers to William and walked to stand next to the door as he always did.

William flipped the pages a little scanning the documents. "I think every things here," he mused. "How did you manage to get this done so fast?" William questioned.

"Abel helped me," Caterina answered truthfully, "it was really surprising, having him give me tips on politics." She shook her head, "I never expected Abel, of all people to actually help me with making a treaty. He always slept through the meeting I had him go to."

XXX

Abel was in deep kimchi, and he knew it. By the look in Seth's face he could tell she was going to bite him out for something. He knew he should have confronted her about his silly idea of her being his sister, but the idea was just to far fetched plus she was the empress. So he opted for avoiding her completely and although it had been fine at the beginning, his action where now turning around and bitting him back in the butt… hard.

"Empress?" Abel asked deciding to play dumb. Play his cards right and he might actually get out of this scot free. She glared at him even harder, if looks could kill he'd be dead by now, "Seth," he corrected, "something wrong?"

Her face softened but it still portrayed a pissed off looking person. "Not something, but someone," She growled pointed her finger at his chest making him take a few steps back, until he bumped into a wall. "A friend doesn't just go around avoiding their friends. Even if you have lost your memory it doesn't give you the right to rude!" She was now shouting at him and didn't really care. "What's wrong Abel? Why have you been ignoring me all this time?" Seth asked a bit nicer but she was still extremely mad.

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I did tell you," Abel mumbled under his breath, not expecting her to actually be able to hear him.

"Huh, what was that, 'you wouldn't believe me, even if I did tell you.' Well try me," Seth challenged, crossing her arms and looking Abel squarely in the eye.

"Like I'd tell you," Abel mimicked Seth's tone flawlessly and crossed his arms just like she had, looking straight back at her.

"If you don't talk to me, then who will you talk to? Caterina? Asthe, Ion or how about Tres?" Seth sighed, "did you get a little of your memory back? Maybe about you being my brother." She looked hopeful, maybe even desperate.

Abel looked at her in complete shock, "S-so you are my sister?" Abel stuttered, Seth nodded. "I had a feeling but I thought it was just my mind making stuff up," he said truthfully.

"Come on I have some pictures of you before we went our separate ways. It could help you get your memory back." Seth grabbed Abel's arm excitedly and ran to her room at full speed.

XXX

Abel stood back as Seth rummaged through her things trying to find what she was looking for. He was still having a hard time imagining her as his sister, even if he had guessed it before she mentioned it. So many questions kept coming to mind. Like how old she really was, she looked to only be 10 but she was the empress which made her over 800 years old, right? Then if she really was 800 would that make her a methuselah? Was he a methuselah? All these questions kept swimming around in his head and only made more questions.

"Here they are," Seth yelped happily, she acted more like the age she looked like then the age she was supposed to be. "I hope these help," she said handing the photos to Abel along with a few letters that he had apparently sent her. She motioned for him to come sit next to her on the bed. He walked to the bed a little uncertain, "what's wrong, afraid I'll bite?" Seth teased, "come sit, after all you are my brother."

Abel sat on the corner of the bed as far away from Seth as he could get. "So how exactly do you know I'm your brother?" He asked.

"I just know you are, here take a look at these" Seth opened up a smaller album and took out a picture, handing it to Abel.

It was a faded picture of two men and two women. One of the women looked to be a little older then twenty. She had fiery red hair and golden tan skin. The other, Abel recognized her immediately, as Seth. The two men in the picture looked a lot alike, the only difference was the hair and eye color. One had blond hair while the other had silver. The silver haired man had icy blue eye's and the other man's eyes was only a few shades darker. In the picture Seth was pulling at the silver haired man's sleeve as he glared at the person who looked just like him. The red head was smiling at the camera and the blond was smiling at the silver haired one.

"Are you really in your eight hundreds," Abel asked, not taking his eyes off the picture.

"I'm actually 966," she replied, "and you're ten years older then me, making you 976."

"I had a feeling I was in my nine hundreds when I first woke up without my memories," he said.

"So do you remember anything else? Even the smallest thing could help," Abel shook his head. "Well that's Lilith and this is Cain, older twin." Seth pointed to the picture.

_Cain_, that name brought up so many different emotions. Love, sorrow, hatred. Just then memories started to flood Abel mind. It was as if he were reliving his whole life in only a few seconds. He was born in 2088 and was one of the four test tube babies that was created from science by the UN. His name was Abel Nightlord and he was one of commanders in the Mars project. On Mars they discovered the bacillus nano machine and the Crusnik. The colonists became infused with the bacillus and became the methuselah people, he and the other three, Cain, Lilith and Seth were infused with the Crusnik. The rest of his memory came back as well, how he became the pope's agent and how he met Caterina and every one else.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I was stuck on this chapter longer then I thought I would be. Sorry for the wait. Now the only problem is I don't know how I'll have Abel react to Seth since he has his memories back. Suggestions anyone?

Please review, in this case it'll really help since I seem to have hit a really large writers block.


	12. Chapter 12

"Seth," Abel looked up at his sister, wisdom filling his lightning blue eyes, "I remember everything." He gave her a warm smile, reaching over to hug his sister.

"You idiot," Seth sniffed burring her face into his shoulder, "you had me so worried."

"It's nice to see you again so soon, I wasn't expecting to see you again for at least until the treaty was made," Abel said still hugging his sister.

"Well you did see me two days ago, but you didn't even recognize me," Seth scolded him as she wiped her face on his shoulder.

"Hey!" Abel shouted pushing her away from him, "I'm not a tissue. Besides it's not my fault I couldn't remember." Seth giggled at his reaction, "what's so funny? You know you ruined a perfectly good shirt now I need to change." Abel said sternly, but his face had a smile on it telling her that he didn't really care.

"You could always come back to being the emperor, and then you could get all the shirts you want," Seth countered.

"You know I can't do that, "Abel said dropping his smile, "first off I'm a sinner and secondly- well you know."

Seth rolled her eye's "whatever brother. You sure it's not just because you're shorter?" She teased, Abel looked at her sternly. "That reminds me, you have been awfully rude these past two days, and I didn't enjoy being ignored. On top of that I hear you've been acting like that ever since you lost your memory," Seth scolded, anger emanating from her.

"Like I said you can't really blame me. You try loosing your memory and lets see how you act," Abel said.

"I would act like a pretty little girl," Seth countered. "The reason you acted like a brat was because you used to always act as such when we were kids. Sense I have always been such a sweet little girl I would never act like you have." Abel rolled his eye's. "Oh, well. At least I'll get my revenge, it will be fun to see how everyone treats you once they find you got your memories back, especially Caterina."

Abel eye's widened and he hit his hand against his forehead with enough force to break a Methuselahs neck. "Caterina's going to kill me," he mumbled. "If I'm lucky Asthe will kill me before that." Abel hit himself mentally, why in the world had he acted so serious? It had been okay in front of Caterina to some point, but he was sure the other's would give him trouble.

"Don't worry brother," Seth chided "You could always come back to the empire."

'Gah. William made me do field tests and I got all perfect scores. And there's the written tests he had me do as well. I even helped Caterina make the treaty. I tried so hard to convince her I was no good at politics, and I ruined it. When I go back Caterina's going to kill me, if not she's going to give me so much paper work.' Abel thought, 'curse all of Williams tests, they have just sent to my grave.'

"If you do decide to come back I'll be sure to tell Asthe first, that you're the first and only emperor," Seth teased. "But don't worry to much about it you won't get to much paper work until Caterina sends her part of the treaty over."

Abel groaned. "Sister, please don't tell anyone" he begged.

"Fine, but you owe me, you shorty,' Seth declared, looking as if she had just won the noble grand prize.

Abel nodded in response, he felt utterly defeated.

"Do you think you'll still be able to act serious?" Seth asked.

"Of course. After all I never really wanted to act like an idiot or a klutz, it was all the popes idea," Abel explained. "You should know that by now, I thought I told you that last time I came here."

Seth shrugged, "well your act was really convincing. If I didn't know better I would say you actually enjoyed acting like Cain."

"As if," Abel said. "The day I start enjoying acting like Cain is the day I become a clown at a circus."

The next day Abel, Tres, Ion and Asthe all left for the Iron maiden. Seth had already said her good bye's at the palace and had told them that she had a servant charge up the iron maiden. It was Sister Kate was already on the ship and ready to take off.

The four of them had just entered the ship when a small girl wearing red waved to them "wait up!" she called.

Abel groaned at the sight of her, he knew it was Seth. Once she got within sight Ion and Asthe bowed. "What are you doing here Seth?" Abel growled, "aren't you supposed to getting ready for your next meeting?"

"Don't talk to the empress like that!" Asthe hit Abel punched Abel on his head. "I'm sorry your Highness." She bowed quickly putting her hand on Abel's head and forcing him to bow as well.

"It's just Seth, Asthe. And as to your question Abel, I'm going to be joining you on this mission as a servant of the empress. Mirka will be covering for me back a the empire." Seth said. At Ion's and Asthe's shocked expressions she said, "Don't worry to much about it. I'm really only coming to go sight seeing, so you don't have to guard me or anything." She lied, she had actually come to spend more time with Abel and had every intention of going with them when they infiltrated the Ordend hideout.

XXXXX

On the way to Albion Abel was as silent as ever and only spoke to the others when they spoke to him first. He wasn't as cautious as he had been before, and he wasn't an odd ball priest he was just himself at the moment. For once in the past six years he could just be himself, for which he was happy. A small smile appeared on his features at the thought. It was just to bad he couldn't be this way forever.

Abel closed his book and set it down on the table. It was a different one that Seth had let him take from the library, he still had his other book but didn't want to read it sense he already had the whole thing committed to memory. Abel watched the two methuselah and Seth playing a card game. It was crazy eights by the looks of it. Tres was standing by the wall as always and kate was watching the other play. If she wasn't a hologram she would have joined in on the fun.

Ion must have noticed Abel had put down his book because he was now looking at him, "Want to play cards with us?" he asked. "We're almost done with this game so you can join us on the next."

Asthe turned to Abel and put in her two sense, "Just get over here already."

Abel was about to decline when Seth looked at him with pleading eye's. "Fine," he huffed, walking a few steps toward them. "What are we playing?" He asked as Ion took the cards and started to shuffle them.

"We have four players now, so how about trumps?" Ion asked looking at everyone who nodded. He shuffled the deck a couple more times before dealing the cards out. Seth was with Abel and Ion with Asthe.

Once done dealing the cards everyone started to bid on the trump. Asthe won the bid and chose spades. She started by throwing down a heart so Abel threw down his ace of hearts; one pack down three more to go. After fifteen minutes the game ended with Abel and Seth being the winners. They played the same thing, this time with different partners; each time they played Abel always came up on top, even when they switched the game to BS.

"You must be cheating somehow," Ion growled. "There's no way you could keep on winning if you didn't."

"You mean like you do, Ion?" Abel looked across the table. "I see what're doing when we play BS. You say your putting down two card but you're actually putting down three cards." Abel smirked at Ion reaction. He had known that Ion had been cheating but didn't say anything. In fact even Asthe and Seth had started to cheat since he had kept on winning.

"Wha- but how did-"

"Cheaters never win," Abel chided. At this Seth and Asthe laughed, "what did I say something wrong?" Abel asked and then Ion joined in.

"It's nice to see you relaxing a bit more," Asthe managed to choke out between her laughter. "You seemed so serious this whole time."

"What? But what does that have to do with every laughing at me?" Abel was totally confused, was he missing something.

When everyone was done laughing they continued to play their game. Until it got late and everyone left for their rooms to go to sleep.

The next day after they ate breakfast the four of them continued with their card game. Every time Abel tried to get out of it Seth would give him the puppy eye's. After a few hours Ion finally took out a board game and from there they kept on rotating between what little board games they to the cards.

XXXX

About time they got to Albion. Abel stretched as he got off the couch and hurriedly put all the games away with the help of everyone else. Dear Lord, because of them he hadn't been able to read his book.

"Asthe, Ion and I will go to meet her majesty," Seth said. "I have a royal warrant from the Empire saying we have a message. Caterina also sent me one from the vatican for you two," she handed the warrant to Tres.

"Affirmative," the android answered, "we will secure father Havel then meet with the Queen as ordered." He relayed the plan.

Seth nodded then took off in haste with the two methuselah on her heels.

"We need to go to the ghetto's," Tres said as he walked the other way, Abel followed him quietly.

XXXX

"What are people of the Vatican doing here," a Methuselah appeared out of the shadows.

"Maybe they came to donate their blood to us," another stepped forward licking his lips.

Abel groaned, they weren't to far from where they were supposed to meet up with Havel, and now these two show up. Life was never fair. Just then even more vampires showed up each one talking to one another or smacking their lips in anticipation of their meal. Okay, now life had just dealt Abel an unfair hand. "We just came for a colleague of ours, but it seems you haven't seen him." Abel said to the methuselah. "I suggest you leave before my friend here starts shooting," he gestured to Tres who had a hand on his gun, ready to shoot if need be.

"Switching from search mode to genocide mode at command," the killing doll said, as his eye's glowed red.

"Hear that boys? These two terrans think they can take us down, the strongest race alive!" The first methuselah yelled. At this the other's started to roar with laughter, first softly then getting louder and louder. "Attack! Eat them alive!" The laughing stopped at all twenty something methuselah raced to Tres and Abel their claws and fangs bared.

"Commence," Tres shot a methuselah and a howl pierced through the night as Abel also drew out his gun and began firing, being sure to miss all vitals.

Slowly wave of methuselah had started to slow down, now only the first methuselah and a few others were still standing. Their companions littered the ground many of them were knocked out some of them were screaming in pain as the rest moaned. Tres was just about to shoot the remaining people but Abel put his hand over the barrel, "Lets just leave," Abel said.

"Is it your intention to stop me?" Tres said his voice emotionless as always. "If so I will not hesitate to take you down as well. All obstacles must be taken care of."

"Tch," Abel raced over the five remain methuselah and hit them all in the back of their head causing them all to faint. Then raced back to where he was and acted as if nothing had happened. "Look they fainted, now lets go."

There was a pause from Tres, and for a minute he thought Tres had actually been able to see him take care of those methuselah even though he had entered haste and moved faster then a member of the second race could. "Affirmative, interference neutralized. Entering search mode."

It took another hour before they finally came to small cabin on the outskirts of town. Havel was supposed to meet them here. Abel knew something was wrong as soon as he came within a mile of the place. By the smell of it, some terran was extremely injured. The smell was coming from inside the cabin, and Havel was no where in sight. Fear for his colleague pricked at Abel.

Without thinking Abel took a deep breath in and kicked open the door. He was immediately hit with the horrid smell of terran blood. On the ground was the bloody figure of Havel pointing his gun at Abel. "Get back you filthy vampire," he spat.

"Lower your weapon," Tres ordered appearing behind Abel. At his words Havel did so and relaxed his shoulders. Tres was by his side in an instant doing first aid. He found that most of the blood wasn't Havels, the only injury the man had was a large gash on his shoulder.

Abel took a step out side as Tres tended to the man. The smell made him extremely light headed. A few minutes later Havel and Tres came out with Havel now wearing a make shift arm sling.

"Sorry about that Abel," Havel held up his bloody hand to Abel. "I didn't recognize you, I hear you lost your memory."

Abel had been holding his breath the whole time he was beginning to see spots. He needed air. He took a few steps back away from Havel eyeing him suspiciously and Havel dropped his hand.

"It's okay if you don't trust me," he gave Abel a warm smile. "You must be confused as is without me adding to your troubles." He turned to Tres, "So wheres the ship? I'd like to take a shower as soon as possible and report to Caterina."

Abel turned around and took a deep breath. The sour smell filling his lungs. Why in the world did this always have to happen to him? Terran blood smelt worse then a garbage dump, how methuselah always managed to drink it was a mystery to him. He took another breath this time it was fainter but it was still a whack in the face. Tres and Havel had started to walk back into town. Tres was updating Havel and their other mission.

"I'm going to go ahead of you," Abel called down to them, before racing off at Terran speed toward where Seth and the others would be. If Tres or Havel had said anything he didn't know.

"Abel doesn't seem to trust me," Havel commented as he watched the boy race off. "He seems so much more different then the goof he used to be. Does he even know that he shrunk?" he turned to Tres.

"Positive, Tres said. He didn't even bother to turn around when Abel had called to them and continued to walk to where the ship would be parked. "We need to report back at the Iron Maiden. Then I need to warn the queen about the orden."

XXX

Once out of sight of Tres and Hugue, Abel sped up until he was moving faster then any methuselah could. Within mere seconds he was before the palace guards and showing them that he was part of the Vatican. "I believe my friends are here as well," he started as he slipped his ID back into his pocket. "They were from the empire. We have reason to believe the queens life is in danger."

AN: Please review if your reading this.

Fountainofroses: here you go the longest chapter I've ever written

Narshia: I like you idea. Have Abel laugh off his seriousness, well I plan to do that once Caterina discovers he got his memory back.

Flame800900: Your Ideas are always gold to me. Just where in the world do you come up with it all?

Chaos: Your reviews always make me laugh. 'Seth Strikes back' sounds like a nice start to funny story, maybe you should write your idea out. I swear, my parents could hear me down the hall when I laughed. yes I still live with my parents, after all i'm only 17. Have fun at Narnia, wish I could join you. Always wanted to ride on a lion.


	13. Chapter 13

"How dare you!" one of the guards yelled. "You can't be a member of the vatican you're to short," the man roared. "No member from the vatican dare suggest that the queen was in danger. Not unless they were a spy." The two guards drew their guns.

"Hold your weapons," a methuselah appeared from within the gates. He had shoulder length blond hair and ember colored eyes.

"Lord Welsh, this man is from the empire. He said the Queens life is in danger." The guard said still holding his gun up to Abel head.

"I heard what he said, and he isn't from the empire but the vatican." Welsh reasoned with the man. "Now lower your gun, this is no way to treat a guest."

The two guards did so slowly, as they eyed Abel. "My lord, he says that people from the empire are here." The second guard said.

"I'm aware of that," Welsh bit back the urge to growl at these foolish Terrans. They were always so one minded. He turned to Abel, "Your friends aren't here, if they were and had delivered such news I would be the first to know."

Shock and worry raced through Abels mind. "Are you sure? There where three of them and they were all methuselah." Abel asked calmly. At his question Welsh shook his head. "I see. Is it okay if I ask for a private meeting with her majesty right now?" Abel asked. He was worried for his friends but the mission came first. The queen was the one in the most danger at the moment.

"Certainly," the man replied. "However she is in a meeting with the council right now discussing- Albion politics. So you will have to wait until after she's done," he paused, "I will also need to be in the room as her guard."

"Of course," Abel nodded his head.

(Seth and company after they left Abel and Tres)

Seth stopped running, something didn't feel right. They were only a mile away from their destination but something told her she was in danger. The two methuselah stopped as well. Looking at her expectantly.

"Your hi- Seth" Asthe corrected herself, at the look Seth had shot at her, "Is something wrong?"

Seth silenced her with a wave of her hand. Her ears twitched from left to right, she couldn't hear anything except the wind rusting a few leaves and the chatter from the town. "It's nothing, Asthe I just thought I heard something."

XXX

The man in the shadows drew out his pistol, aiming for the tall female methuselah, and fired a small dart. It hit her in the neck, within a few minutes she and the rest of her friends would be asleep. Next he aimed for the male and finally the young black haired girl.

When the needle hit the black haired girl, she stopped as if she knew something was up. The man held his breath, cursing himself mentally for not being careful. The girl twitched her nose and ears. The female methuselah caller her Seth. But the girl silenced her by holding up her hand. They stayed there for a while and after a few second the two methuselah he had hit first buckled and fell to the ground.

Immediately the girl, Seth twirled around when she heard her friends faint. She pushed them on their backs trying to shake them awake, a worried look on her face. The man shot another needle into the back of the girls neck. He waited for awhile, waiting for the tranquilizer to take affect. It became apparent to him that she was somehow immune to the drug.

Static came through his radio. He put his hand to his ear, "Yes." He whispered.

"Isaac I need you back here now, now, now, now, now." The voice of his master came through.

"Of course, Mein Heir." Isaac replied, "I was just testing out the new drugs."

"Well get back here," the voice said irritatedly.

Isaac backed up farther into the shadows before taking off and blending into the crowd. He couldn't figure out why his drug hadn't worked on the young girl. He was planning on capturing her and the other methuselah to use them as lab rats to test his new drugs. He'd have to go hunting for new test subjects after he tended to his master.

XXX

Seth twirled around on her heels when she heard Asthe and Ion collapse. They were breathing just fine and had rapid eye movement, indicating they were having a dream. However Seth knew better, these two both collapsed at the same time, it must have been tranquilizers. They had rapid eye movement because they were being forced to sleep by a drug.

She turned them both around so they where laying on their backs. She cursed "just great." Seth shook them, trying to get them to wake up. A few seconds later she felt something prick at her neck and slapped it thinking it was a bug. But instead found small splinter like needles. She pulled them out of her neck and stared at them. Someone had been following them!

Seth kept her eye's on the two in front of her, but sent the rest of her senses to the surrounding area. She heard someone whispering and then suddenly the person took a few steps back and took off in a run. Without thinking Seth easily picked up her two companions by the scruff of their shirt and took off on the direction of the retreating figure.

He was dressed like a butler and wore all black. His hair cut shortly. The man took off into the crowd. Seth couldn't make him out any more as he got further and further away. With the load that she was carrying she didn't have as good mobility as she would have liked to have. Seth stopped running when the man was completely out of sight. Many people had stopped to turn to her and gave her weird looks as if saying, 'what are you doing caring two people'.

Carrying her friends to a near by park she laid them down on benches. First she went to Asthe and removed the small needle from her neck then turned to Ion and did the same. Seth shook them a few times but they didn't react. Sighing she guessed they'd be up in an hour. She just hopped everyone else was okay.

XXX

Abel sat in the waiting room right outside of the room the Queen and the council members where in. Virgil had told them that she would be done shortly. The older looking man stood near the exit and looked to be relaxed. But Abel knew better, if he tried to run the man would attack him.

A good five to ten minutes passed before finally sounds could be heard from the inside as people began to head for the door. The door opened with a slam, followed by a little over 20 people all exiting the room with their bags and paper work in one hand. Once they had all exited the room Virgil came up to Abel and placed a firm hand on his shoulders. Silently telling him to follow him, and at the same time relaying a message that if Abel dare do anything to harm the queen, Virgil wouldn't hesitate to act.

"My Queen," Virgil started. He was now behind Abel and blocked the door with his body. "A vatican messenger has come to deliver news. He says your life is in danger, and I think it would be best if we listened to him."

The Queen was dressed in light pink dress that flowed all the way to the ground. It had golden embroidery near the cuff of the sleeves, and she wore a matching ruby necklace. She had greying red hair with dark green eyes and looked to be in her early seventies.

"I see," The queen spoke up once Abel's eye's rested on her own. She seemed to be studying him just as he had, done to her. "Well, do have a seat and tell me your reasons for believing this," Her voice was kind and loving, as she motioned for Abel to take a seat by the podium.

It felt like the millionth time, as Abel again explained what had been on the note Ion had stolen. At the time he didn't have the note to show her since Ion had it with him. Then again, even if he did it wouldn't have helped much seeing as it was written in an ancient language.

"I'm sorry, however I highly doubt my life is in danger," the Queen began once Abel had finished. "Our security here is one of the best and theres no way that man would ever be able to slip a drug into any of the food I eat without someone noticing. I suggest you go back to the Vatican, your help's not needed here," She ended walking down to the podium and then turning to Virgil.

Virgil looked a bit concerned, almost as if he believed Abel tale but said nothing when his Queen walked out the door. He bowed to Abel before following her.

Abel sighed, "well that could have gone better." He stretched before walking out of the room. 'Guess I'll go back to the Iron Maiden, and tell them the queen doesn't believe me. We'll probably stay for another week or so just to keep an eye out for trouble though." Abel thought as he walked down the hall and exited the building.

**A/N:** So I've decided to have Cain appear for a bit. Originally i was going to make an OC to take Cains place, but I soon found my character to be crazy just like Cain, and it would be weird to have two crazy characters.

Please review, it helps me think... not really but I really enjoy reading everyones comments. Plus it keeps me motivated.

*Sniff* My doggy died and I hope he goes to doggy Heaven *Sniff*


	14. Chapter 14

"Is Seth, Asthe and Ion here?" Abel questioned Kate. He had just gotten back to the Iron maiden and already knew the answer. Upon entering the ship he didn't smell the methuselah or his sister, granted the smell of terran blood was all over.

"Nope," Sister Kate replied, not bothering to turn away from the book she was reading. "But Tres and Father Havel are here. They're both in the infirmly, checking on Havels arm."

"Oh," Abel said, sounding disappointed and worried. "I'm going to go out for a little." He told Kate and headed for the hatch. He didn't wait for Kate's response and simply walked out.

Abel raced into town going faster then any Methuselah. To every one that passed he seemed to be nothing more then a strong gust of wind. Every once in while Abel would come across the smell of his sister and the Methuselah with her however every time he tried to follow it, he would loose the trail. If it weren't for the fact that he was in town that was over populated with terran he would have found them by now. Abel cursed under his breath, 'where the hell are they?'

He suddenly stopped in near a group of terrans, and they all yelped in shock, at his sudden appearance. Abel knelt down, his sister had been here in this spot. He could smell a faint trace of Crusnik blood. He looked at the paved road, going over every nook and cranny. There! Abel reached down picking up a tiny needle. His sister's smell was all over this, and someone else's, but he couldn't make it out.

Walking back into town where a larger crowd gathered around the markets, Abel didn't know where his legs took him and at the moment and didn't really care. His mind was racing over all the possibilities on what could have happened to his sister. He was really only walking so that he didn't look out of place on the bustling street.

After who knows how long Abel finally came to a stop in a park. There lying on a bench was Ion and Asthe, Seth was sitting on the edge of Ions bench looking at the note he had stolen.

Once Abel got close to Seth, his sister snapped her head up, her fangs bared into a snarl.

"What happened to them?" Abel asked racing to Asthe's side then looking over at Ion. He didn't care that his sister had almost attacked him.

"Abel?- I- they," Seth broke off. Taking a deep breath she started over, "Someone shot small tranquilizers at us. It didn't affect me but these two fainted." Panic laced her voice as she said this. At least she wasn't stuttering over her words though. "They've been like that for over three hours."

Abel leaned over Asthe and opened her eye lid, he then did the same to Ion. "They both have rapid eye movement," he muttered to himself. "Have you tried waking them up?" Abel turned to his sister and she nodded.

"I've tried everything. I tried shaking them and calling their names. I even ran with the two of them over my shoulder and they still didn't wake up." Seth listed, balling her hands into fists.

"We could always dump water on them," Abel joked, as he stood up. "After all, even I wake up whenever someone throughs water at me, and I hate mornings." Abel gave his sister a reassuring smile. Abel wasn't a morning person but he wasn't a heavy sleeper either. As soon as someone came near him, or so much as rolled over Abel would wake up. Back on Mars Abel had made it so, everyone thought he was a heavy sleeper in hopes that they would attack him, thinking he would be sleeping (it was one of those things Abel did to have fun). Even his own sister and brother had thought this was true. "Well we might as well try it," Abel yelled over his shoulder as he raced off to the nearest bender.

A few seconds later Abel came back with 2 two bottles of water, one in each hand. He popped the cover open with his thumb and tipped the bottle over Asthe's face before Seth could even say something. At first Seth looked to be outraged by Abel's foolish action but the next it was replaced by hope and then laughter, as Asthe woke up.

"What the," Asthe jolted awake and sat up. She nearly hit Abel's head with her own. She looked totally confused at first but it was immediately replaced by anger when she found she was wet. She shot Abel death looks, she would have hit him but she decided not to sense she was in front of the Empress. Abel ignored her and poured the second bottle over Ion. A second later the count woke up as well, and like Asthe he shot Abel death looks.

"Well, br- Abel," Seth started, "for once it seems your idiotic ideas worked." Abel snorted in response as he walked over to the trash can to dispose of the bottles.

"What happened?" Ion finally spoke up looking from Abel to Seth, "I remember stopping in the middle of the town on our way to meet the queen, but" Ion shook his head "I can't remember much else."

"Someone shot a tranquilizer needle at the two of you," Seth said not really wanting to go through the detail. Ion seemed to notice this and shut his mouth, looking a little disappointed. "In any case we need to go meet with the queen. We are already behind schedule as it is."

Asthe and Ion nodded as they both stood up. Abel sighed and ran his fingers through his silver hair. "I already warned the queen," he confessed.

"You what?" Seth, Asthe and Ion and yelled at him at once.

"She didn't believe me though," Abel continued, seeming to ignore the trio's sudden outburst. "She said their security was one of the best," Abel said, relaying the queens list of why they didn't believe anyone would be after her.

Seth sighed once Abel was done explaining, "We still need to tell the queen, the more aggressive we are on the matter the more she'll be likely to listen. Besides even if she doesn't at least we'll be making her and all of her other guards alert."

"Fine but I'm coming," Abel stated.

"Think Abel," Seth said looking at him, "It's almost night, and soon the queen will be asleep. As you are a terran, it'll take you a whole hour to get to the palace," she had smirk on as if she knew her brother would hate her calling him a terran. "Since we are methuselah it'll only take us a few minutes to get there… Unless of course you can run as fast as us." Seth teased. Abel looked as if he was about to say something and protest but he closed his mouth and instead just nodded. He wouldn't be running with them, instead he'd follow from a distance and pop up once they went inside.

XXX

Seth and the two methuselah arrived at the gate and like the last time the guards were rude. A few seconds later Lord Welsh appeared out of no where and lead them into the palace grounds.

Now was his chance, Abel jumped out of the tree he had been hiding in and started to run toward the methuselah as he shouted for them to wait. Once at the the gates Abel put his hands on his knees and began to breath heavily, as he pretended to be tired from the long run.

"Aren't you that kid that came by earlier?" One of the men snarled pointing his spear at Abel.

"Yes," Abel gasped.

Asthe turned around at the sound of Abels voice, "sorry, he's with us," she apologized. The guarded grunted at Abel before letting him pass.

"How did you get here so fast?" Ion asked once Abel caught up to them, he was still breathing heavily.

"I, took a short cut," he lied.

Once Abel had caught up with them, Virgil turned around and began to lead the way. This time he took them into a smaller room that looked a lot like the room, Seth had used to communicate with the vatican. "I'm sorry, but when the queen heard, his report she thought he was lying. She said, if anyone else claims her life is in danger to send them away." Virgil paused, as if he wasn't certain on if he should continue or not. "I don't think you're lying and as the queens guard I must ensure her safety. Even if the queen doesn't want to listen to you I will," there was another pause. "Let me take a look at that note you have and I will help to investigate. I will need to do it in secret though, since the queen doesn't want me to be doing this to begin with."

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews I've been getting! I finally reached 30. I didn't really expect that many, it really surprised me.

WolfAwaken: No the queen I'm talking about is Esther's grandmother. Esther still doesn't know that she's part of royalty.

Thanks for praying for my dog Chaos, your poem really helped.


	15. Chapter 15

"I'll take this note with me into the ghetto's," Virgil said after taking the paper from Ion. "Our computers there should be able to translate everything into latin so we can all understand it," Virgil kept an eye on Abel as he said this, as if he expected the teen to say something. While everyone had updated him on what was going on, Virgil had picked up on the fact that Abel was supposed to have amnesia. However the more he payed attention to the teen the more he realized that Abel didn't act like someone who had brain damage. Abel nodded. Yup, if he had been someone with amnesia he would have asked about the ghetto's, unless he was just mentally retarded to begin with. Virgil shook his thoughts away, "if you want, all of you can come with me. While the computer are translating the papers, we can use another one to pinpoint the orden's exact hideout."

"I'll go look for the Orden while you guy's can stay here, if you find the hideout you can radio me," Abel said hurriedly as Seth said, "I have something I need to look at."

"Okay," Ion said looking from Seth to Abel with a confused look on his face, "Asthe and I will go with Lord Welsh and if we find anything we'll radio you."

Virgil nodded, "I'll take you there right now. The sooner we find the orden the better." With that he exited the room with Ion and Asthe following close behind him.

"I have something I need to look at," Abel mimicked Seth once he was sure the methuselah wouldn't be able to here him. "Was that the best you could come up with?" he teased, cocking an eyebrow.

Seth rolled her eyes, "whatever brother, we both know that none of us want to go there because it used to be an old UN base. Come on lets get out of here, we need to look for the orden.

XXX

Isaac slowed down once he got closer to the hideout. He didn't want anyone to notice him. Isaac looked around a few times to make sure the black haired girl hadn't been following him the whole time. All he needed was a little slip up and his master would behead him and suck away his life.

Once sure no one had followed him, he slipped into the building. At first sight it looked like your average convenience store. But they also sold drugs and did undercover work. However this was all a cover up. This base was only one of the 3 others where his master, Cain, could regenerate.

"Yes, Mein Heir?" Isaack bowed to the blond haired man sitting on the edge of the pool. The man wore nothing but white robes that was lined with red. His dark blue eye's shined through the darkened room.

"Ah, yes," Cain started, "02 has been spotted in Albion. You have been careless," he growled as his eye's got tainted with red. "I would have thought you had better sense, but somehow 02 has got wind of our plans and has warned the Queen and on top of that 03 is here as well. If puppet master fails, you will be the one to take his punishment."

Isaac lowered his gaze once more, "I understand, Mein Heir. I won't ever make such a blunder again."

"We will be evacuating soon," I don't want 02 to destroy this hideout," Cain informed Isaac, as he slipped off his robes and slid into the pool. "Set up a trap for 02, I don't care what you do as long as it doesn't kill him. After all I need his body," Cain waved his hand dismissively then dunk his head into the water. Isaac took this as a sign that he was being dismissed. Bowing his head once more, Isaac left the room.

Although Cain didn't say it, Isaac knew that the evacuation and trap was going to have to lead 02 away from their plan.

(Over an hour later)

Static came through to Abel's radio, putting his hand to his ear Abel pressed on his link. "Did you find anything, on your side yet?" Seth's voice rang through the radio.

"Nope," Abel lied, he could hear Seth sigh on the other side before she hung up. 'She could have at least said over and out.' He had actually found what he believed to be the base. The only thing was there was no one there. It was almost as if they had abandoned the place.

It was one of the taller building in town and had a great view from the roof. The whole building was empty and completely devoid of any people, the electricity was out and the water wasn't running. But Abel knew something was off about this place because there wasn't a speck of dust. The only part of the building that was still functioning was on the first floor, convenience store. It still had workers and customers coming in.

Abel had already opened more then half the doors in the building and only had two more floors to look at. Each room was either completely empty or had a few boxes stacked in the corner. When ever there was a box he would look through it but for some reason it always turned up empty.

"BANG," Abel slammed open another door, and the noise echoed all the way down the hall. Great another empty box. Abel walked to it and opened it just like he had all the others. Nothing, completely empty. Sighing he walked out of the room, crossed the hall, and "BANG," slammed open the other door. This sure was getting tiring, well at least this room had nothing in it. Okay, on to the 4th floor.

XXX

Seth sighed and pressed the link to turn her radio off. 'That brother of mine never learns. Does he really think I can't tell when he's lying.' Seth breathed in the cool night air and took off to find Abel. Within the past hour Seth had already covered every square inch of her side of town at least twice and she found nothing. Seth wiped past the buildings, everything was a blur to her.

Finally Seth came to a stop. She could tell that Abel was somewhere in this five story building. Looking up, Seth thought she saw something move, but it was gone so fast that no even she thought she had seen it. Seth jumped into the window of a room on the fourth floor. The same room she thought she saw the shadow, but the room was void of anything, even the tiled flooring had no carpets on them.

Exiting the small room, Seth stopped right out side the door. She had seen a dark shadow again. Pricking her ears she made no movements as she concentrated on her surroundings. On the third floor she could hear light footsteps and a loud, bang from a door being slammed shut. She knew this was her brother by the smell. Concentrating harder, she could just barely hear, another few pairs of footsteps; about a good ten. They sounded to light to be that of a terran, but for some reason it sounded to blunt to be a methuselahs. There was also another noise; the slight humming of- wires? Seth took a deep breath, and was immediately hit with the smell of methuselah blood.

Seth, was caught off guard when suddenly something slammed into her head from behind. Why in the world hadn't she noticed earlier? Stumbling a bit from shock, Seth turned to meet her attacker. A death hunter.

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews I've been getting! Please continue reviewing.


	16. Chapter 16

The sound of someone fighting could be heard on the floor above him. It wasn't the sound of clashing swords that met his ears, but the dull thumping sound which indicated a fist fight. Among the jumble of sounds, Abel could also hear the sound a click, someone was about to get shot. As fast as he could, Abel quickly raced up the flight the stairs.

Abel slammed opened the door that opened up into the 4th floor. He was met by a group of three methuselah and another seven death hunters. His brain automatically did the math unconsciously. Great ten in all. None of them even looked at him when he suddenly entered, they were all to intent on there prey- Seth. What in the world was she doing here?

Abel's eye's flickered, only resting a second on each of the puppets. There, the one with a gun. Quickly, Abel threw himself at the death hunter. The puppet didn't seem in the least bit fazed and continued to aim at Seth. Bang. The deathly ring of death met Abel's ears. He knew his sister couldn't die from just one bullet, but even so it would still hurt. Without thinking he threw himself between the bullet and his sister.

White hot pain shot through Abel veins. The bullet at got him right in the stomach. Snarling he raced back to the death hunter and took off his head with one sweep of his hand.

"Abel?" Seth looked at her brother shocked, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Abel growled. "Come on lets take care of these guys," Abel added, at the hurt look on Seths face. Just nine more to go. He could tell they were all being controlled by the puppet master by the slight glimmer of the wires in the dim light. His eye's quickly followed the stings to it source. It was a methuselah, if he took that puppet down the others would stop as well. Quickly Abel grabbed the gun the death hunter had been using before and fired 3 rounds at the Methuselah.

"Dang," Abel muttered, he had totally forgotten that a puppet couldn't feel any thing and the only way to stop it was to decapitate it, or take out its heart (well something along those lines) Cursing Abel spun on his heals, just in time to stop a death hunter from attacking him. He could tell his sister knew what he was up to, and knew she would be trying to take down the lead methuselah as well.

Fighting as one back to back the two made their way to the lead methuselah. Their fighting was in perfect sync, even though they hadn't teamed up together in centuries. Through out the whole fight this methuselah did nothing, and only fired a few shots with his gun, all of them of coursed missed. Abel did the honors and took the man head. When he did so all the others returned to the lifeless corpses that they were.

XXX

"Are you sure your okay?" Seth asked Abel, she was staring at his abdomen, "It should have healed by know. When was the last time you ate?"

"I'm fine," Abel said, for what seemed like the hundredth time. He continued to stalk off to where the iron maiden should be. "It'll heal when it's ready, maybe my shrinking has causing it to heal slower," Abel tried to reason with his sister. He had already given her a lot of other excuses but she didn't seem to buy it. 'Okay, now she's going to start scolding me for lying again. I'm starting to see the cycle.'

"When was the last time you ate?" Seth asked again. Wow, the cycle broke, that's new.

"Well I ate this morning before we left the iron maiden," Abel answered. Seth stopped walking and crossed her arms, causing Abel to stop and turn to her, "What?"

"You know what I mean brother," Seth raised an eye brow.

"Oh, you mean when I last drank blood," Abel played dumb, of course he knew what she had been talking about but he wanted to avoid it. Sighing he said, "Caterina, gave me some before I left the vatican, about two weeks ago."

"And before that?"

"Um- I don't remember," Abel said truthfully, he cringed ready for his sister to start scolding him.

Seth started walking again, "don't think we're done talking yet!" she yelled over her shoulder after she passed him. "First you lie to me," Seth began her tirade again. Oh and the cycle is back! "Then you get shot, and you're no healing properly, and know I find you're not taking care of yourself." Seth turned around and jabbed her finger at Abel wound, causing him to flinch. "I thought you said you were fine," she chided. "If you hadn't lied to begin with you wouldn't be hurt right now, and I wouldn't have to scold you," Seth turned and continued to walk.

Abel rolled his eye's, sister's, what can you do? "Race you!" Abel shouted as he entered haste and ran past his sister. He could hear her shout at him as if, he where crazy.

Seconds later Seth had caught up with him, and was now glaring at him. "What happens if you reopen your wound?" she growled, just because he looked like child didn't mean he could act like one, for crying out loud he was 976 years old. "What in the world do you think you're doing?"

Abel laughed at his sister mad face, as he dropped back into the goof act that he had grown so accustomed to over the years. "I'm lighting up the mood! Besides if we run we'll get back to the ship sooner." He yelled back at her, with a smile. "See we're almost-"

Abel's smile dropped the second he saw the ship. He could smell death hunters in there and he could hear fighting within. Abel and Seth exchanged glances and burst into the Iron maiden. What was going on here? First they find a base that wasn't as empty as they thought it would be, and now they find the ship under attack?

Havel and Tres where in the main hall surrounded by death hunters. Havel's hand had shifted into a sword and Tres had drawn both guns. Havel attacked those nearest to them, while Tres shot those who were farther away.

Abel jumped into the chaotic swinging of arms. Dodging all the blows that came his way, he was before his friends in a heart beat. Seth had already started to attack the outer shell of death hunters. Without so much as a glance at his friends Abel attacked those around him, using the revolver Tres had given him.

He was only half aware of what his friends where doing, most of Abel's attention being on the fight. Punch, duck, kick, block, shoot. Abel fired on the first death hunter, then jumped over it, and sent a flying a kick to another. Four more death hunters replaced the two he had just took down. Abel sent a bullet through two of there heads. He swept his foot in an ark motion of the ground, causing the other two and a few other death hunters to fall. Before any of them could get up, Abel quickly ripped off all of there masks and they became lifeless.

Blood pulsed through Abel's ear, all of his senses multiplied ten fold so that he was aware of all his surroundings. Soon Abel and Seth met in the middle of all the turmoil, standing back to back the two started fighting as one.

Seth swiped one of her knives as her brother landed a kick on another death hunter. Seth sliced through the first line of defense. Abel only a foot from her shot down the next. Slowly the death hunters were diminishing.

XXX

Havel was out cold. Tres stood over him, preventing any death hunters from getting near him. Abel and Seth had split up once more and were fighting separately. Where in the world were they all coming from? Both Seth and Abel weren't in the least bit tired, but Havel was injured and although Tres didn't show it he had been in better condition before.

Abel saw a death hunter make a move to attack Havel, however Tres had his hands full with another enemy. Slamming the death hunter he had just been fighting into a wall, Abel hurtled himself into the death hunter that was heading for Havel. In one fluid motion he quickly beheaded the creature, however not fast enough. In the same moment Abel had sliced threw its neck the creature had pulled the trigger on his gun. At point blank rage, the bullet pierced threw Abel's arm, and dislocated his shoulder. Caught off guard by the sudden pain, He didn't notice when two more death hunters came up to him. One sent a totally of three rounds into Abel's body, the other had taken his head and slammed it against the wall, making his vision blurry. He was loosing blood fast, not thinking Abel quickly jumped into the air and knocked the two of them.

Blood dripped to the ground, his wounds were not healing at the pace he would have like them to. Abel doubled over as white hot pain lanced through his whole body. This was so pathetic, a crusnik getting bested by mere puppets.

Abel took a deep breath, it sounded ragged. He could hear the crusnik talking to him, begging him to activate them. No, he wouldn't use them, he couldn't. Something was picking at his mind, as if trying to open up the door to control. Another jolt of pain shot up Abel's spine, he hadn't even noticed when a death hunter had neared him. Suddenly numb to all the pain, Abel entered the dark abyss.

XXX

Seth watched as her brother got stabbed and wounded. She tried getting to him, but all the death hunters prevented her from doing so. "Abel!" Seth screamed, a tear threatened to escape her eye's. He just had to be okay- he had to. Her brother dropped to the ground, as another death hunter stabbed him. Her heart got stuck in her throat. Even if he would live threw it, she knew it still had to hurt.

Seth stared at her brother in shock, 'come on, get up Abel' she urged silently as she took down another death hunter. Abel twitched his hand and slowly got to his feet swaying. He had a hand on the wall to keep him balanced. But this wasn't Abel- no it was something much more evil, the crusnik. It had no kindness in its bloody red eye's and it had a large frown plastered on its face, almost as if it was having an inner turmoil within itself. No doubt Abel was trying to gain control.

The crusnik leaned against the wall. Another death hunter, came up to Abel with a gun in his hand. Seth was just about to cry out, when the crusnik stretched out his hand, and slammed the creature into the wall on the other side. "No one hurts this body." the crusnik snarled, it's voice was distorted. Without even blinking, he ripped off the head of the death hunter, and threw it to the crowd. "Crusnik 02 eighty percent activate confi-"

The crusnik cut off. His eye's had widened in pain and his mouth was opened into a silent scream of pain. It clutched its stomach, as more blood gushed out of all the wounds Abel had received. Gasping for air, it fell on its side, and squeezed its eye's shut in pain.

**A/N:** Hehe. Killing you slowly with all the cliffhangers...

Man, a seem to have writters block a whole lot more then I did before. If you add writers block to laziness you get someone who can't write at all. Writers block + Laziness = -_- BLANK  -_-

I leave the rest to your creative minds.

Please review, it really helps.


	17. Chapter 17

Taking the down the last of the death hunters, Seth reached Abel. A little farther away, Tres had begun to treat Havel.

When Seth reached her brother, his eye's were still glowing red. Faint blue sparks danced along his body. For some reason his wounds weren't closing at all, and none of the methuselah blood had snaked its way to Abel. Seth touched Abel's face, willing him to get up and show he was okay. A slight jolt of pain raced through her fingers as electricity shocked her. She quickly drew back her hand.

Ripping the cloak she wore, Seth neatly set down the rags near her brother. First she took care of one the cut along his neck, and rapped a cloth around it. Next was the hard part, she was sure she wouldn't like what she was about to see. Taking a deep uneven breath, Seth elongated her talons, and ripped Abel shirt down the middle. As careful as she could she slowly peeled his bloody shirt away from his skin.

What met her eye's was devastating. There were at least five bullet holes in his chest alone, and even more in his stomach. Deep long gashes, were traced across his abdomen. She could tell that both his lungs and heart had been pierced at least twice, once by a bullet and another by a sword. Each breath her brother took caused blood to gush out of his wounds. Seth pinched her forefinger and thumb together, as she dug her nail into one of Abel cuts, to dig out the bullet. Once sure she got a good hold of it she pulled her nails out. She did this several times, where the bullet hadn't gone straight through Abel. When she was sure she had gotten the last of the bullets out, she rapped the shreds of her cloak around him. Making sure that it would take time for the blood to soak through.

Standing Seth walked over to Tres and Havel to see if they would need any help. She didn't want them to be getting the idea that her and Abel knew each more then they should have.

XXX

"Gah. We haven't found anything," Ion complained . He scratched his head to restrain himself from hitting the table or something else, and possibly braking it. "It's been almost five hours!" he leaned back on the the chair, and looked up at the roof. Staring at the computer for almost five hours was starting to cause his eye's to water.

"It can't be helped," Asthe said, as she clicked yet another link on the computer. "The Rozan Kreuz is a tricky organization, I wouldn't be to surprised if they knew we were coming," She shrugged. "They could have even abandoned their mission to kill the queen, or they could have already poisoned the queen. For all we know that note could have been a lie." She swiveled her chair so she was turned to Lord Welsh. "Have you found anything, sir?"

"Nothing," Virgil responded as he turned to face the other two. "You two can return to your ship if you want. I noticed that the two of you haven't slept last night." At Ion and Asthe confused faces, he explained, "your eye's are red. Plus you have adjusted to Terran time, so it would only make sense if you haven't slept when the sun was up." he smiled at the two of them. "I believe the computer should be done analyzing the note by now. Let me make a copy for you and then you can do what ever you want." Virgil walked over to smaller computer and began typing something. A few minutes later, virgil had produced two papers both with the translated note. He handed one of the papers two Asthe as well as the original.

"Thank you," Asthe said, as received the papers, "You've been a lot of help."

Virgil smiled at this as I he were about to laugh, "I should be the one thanking you, after all you are doing this for the queen."

"We'll stop by tomorrow to continue our research if we're able to," Ion nodded his head to Virgil, as Asthe did the same.

"Of course, however the queen has a meeting until one in the afternoon, so you'll have to wait till then. I'll meet you outside of the gates."

Ion and Asthe nodded their heads once more and said their goodbye's to Virgil, thanking him once again before they left the ghettos.

XXX

Seth and Tres began to remove the corpses from the Iron Maiden. The enticing smell of methuselah blood wafted it's way outside with each death hunter that they removed. It was taking along time, and Seth had half a mind to turn all the corpses into ashes. Then all they would need to do was dust it away with a broom. Sighing Seth picked up another lifeless form and made her way to the hatch, she through the corpse out so that it landed on the pile, that was beginning to form.

At the sight of two figures Seth stopped, it was Asthe and Ion. Tres on the other hand dropped the body he was carrying and raised his guns, but after they came into view he put his revolver back into his hoister and resumed his cleaning duties.

"What in the world happened here?" Asthe asked as both she and Ion eyed the pile of death hunters.

"More then a hundred of those puppets attacked the ship," Seth explained. "Would you mind helping us clean up?" She asked, though it was more of a order then a question. Asthe and Ion nodded their heads as if they got this and began to work.

Ion seemed to notice Abel was missing because as soon as he entered the ship he asked, "what happened to father Nightroad?"

Seth shook her head, "he and father Havel got injured during the fight. They are terrans after all." Seth could tell that Asthe had stopped to listen to her because she had a worried look on her face when she heard Abel was hurt. Ion had started to throw out the corpses again with a nod.

Once they were done getting the bodies out of the ship, Sister Kate shimmered into life. "I can take of all the blood," she started, at everyones confused looks she explained, "the ship has an automatic cleaner, it can dust and mop the floor and everything." Everyone just nodded, to tired to ask anymore. Seth headed for the bath.

An hour later the ship looked just as clean as it had been before the attack. There was no difference except for the dents in the wall that was caused from all the fighting.

In the control room only Tres and kate could be seen. Ion and Asthe were no where to be seen, they were either still showering or had already gone to sleep. Without wasting another second Seth went to the infirmary. She had a small vile of blood in her hand.

The door opened with a slight squeak and Seth held her breath, praying that Havel would still be sleeping. Opening the door farther and stepping in she let out her breath when Havel was still asleep.

Seth sat down at a chair near Abel's bed. Unlike Havel he didn't have any devices connected to him. Seth popped open the vile and slowly poured the contents into Abel's mouth. It had some restorative sugar in it, but even that wouldn't help to much, she wished she had more blood.

Abel coughed as the liquid entered his mouth. "Seth?" He opened his eye's. For the most part they were blue but they were also tinted with a red. "Hehe, I feel like I just got put through a shredder," he croaked. Abel tried pushing himself up with his arms but he collapsed under his weight. "How's Havel?"

"He has a few minor cuts, if anything the only serious wound he has is the gash on his arm," Seth answered. "You need to stay in bed," she commanded and she pushed Abel down when he tried to sit up again. At her touch he gasped, "sorry."

"I'm fine, don't worry. I'll heal by the end of tomorrow," Abel smiled.

Seth nodded, "I'll be going then. Oh and Abel, your eye's are a bit red and your fangs are showing."

Abel blinked a few times, and ran his tongue over his teeth. Why in the world were his fangs out at a time like this? Abel pushed his tongue against his fangs as if to push it back into place. Great, he was in a worse condition then he thought he was. Abel frowned and looked back at his sister, "thanks for the warning, I'll be sure to be carful when I talk to people," he mumbled.

**A/N:** Please review. It keeps me motivated.

I had the strangest dream last night that kid Abel came to my house and we ate Pizza together. Well it might not have been Abel but he had silvery white hair. And then my dog (the one that passed away) came out of no where and i started hugging him as if he never left to begin with... God, my dreams are weird.

Chaos: You have very creative ideas. Cain in a maid outfit, I never thought of that one. What came to mind was something very strange. By the way, I'm not a girl, or am I? Actually a prefer to be incognito on that little detail, it makes me more mysterious. It's fun making people guess who I really am. One of my friend know I'm writing a fan fic but doesn't know what my pen name is or what i'm writing about. He's trying to figure it out. This little message will probably be a big clue. As for the mysterious reviewer Kite00 i have no clue who he/she is.

Kite00: It would help a whole lot if you reviewed on each chapter... not saying that you have to but it does... As for you calling your self my twin, I also find it funny... Gah, I can't think strait...


	18. Chapter 18

Asthe slipped into her cloths once she was done taking a bath. She then walked down the hall, heading to the infirmary.

"I'll be sure to be careful when talking to people," a voice croaked from with in the smaller room. Asthe stopped herself from opening up the door, and waited a bit more, to see if the voice would continue talking. A few seconds passed before the door opened revealing Seth.

Seth looked up to see Asthe standing next to the door, "oh, hello Asthe," she smiled sweetly. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I just wanted to make sure that father Nightroad was okay," Asthe explained. "I'll go to sleep once I visit him," she added quickly. It almost seemed like the empress had been the one who was talking to the raspy voice.

"Well, good night Asthe," Seth said as she walked passed the taller woman.

Asthe waited a while before she finally entered the room. Abel looked as if he had just bit his tongue or the inside of his mouth, because he kept on twitching the sides of his lip. "You look tired," she commented his eyes looked red. Abel nodded. How are you doing?" She asked, she already knew the answer, by the the smell of blood that was coming off from him.

Abel eyed Asthe before speaking up, "other then the fact I can't sit up? Fine," he replied with a hint a venom in his voice. He kept on twitching his lips every time he said something. "I'm tired, if you don't mind can we talk later?" he asked.

Asthe snorted. She was with holding the urge to hit him, for his poor manors. Taking a deep breath she said, "good night," walked out the door, and slammed it. Why in the world had she even gone to visit him in the first place. He wasn't even the tovarish she had known.

XXX

Abel flinched when Asthe slammed the door. It was causing his ears to ring and thus gave him a slight headache. Just great, more pain then he needed. Abel sighed, at least he didn't need to talk to her any more. Even though he had only said a few words, it had been hard to hide his fangs while talking. It just wasn't comfortable.

Once sure no one else would be coming into the room, he tried to prop himself on his arms. Panting heavily, he moved himself so that he was leaning against the wall in a sitting position.

The blanket fell away from his chest. He wasn't wearing a shirt, only the bandages covered his upper body. Abel moved his hand slowly to touch the bandaging. Even the slightest movement sent a jolt of pain through his entire body. Abel dropped his hand and groaned. He had been in far worse conditions before but it still didn't help the fact that he was in pain.

Closing his eye's he could feel himself falling into deep sleep.

(Year 2209)

Abel cracked open his swollen eye's and was met with the dark chamber. His knees bit into the hard surface of the floor. His arms chained behind him, if he dared to activate the crusnik he would get shocked.

He looked up to see the man standing above him. He had wavy, light brown hair with matching tea colored eyes. At one point the man had been one of Abels friends, but now he was nothing of the sort. Brother Myles, head of the Vatican military.

He grinned evilly down at Abel, a dagger in his hand. "You are not human. You're a vile monster who was doomed to hell the second you were born. You have no rights; you don't even have the right to live." Abel sad nothing to this. Even if he had answered, he would only have been awarded by getting stabbed. Myles dug the dagger into Abels chest, just barely missing Abel's heart. Abel gasped, but other wise didn't show his pain. He could feel the crusnik trying to activate. Abel tried to stop it but it was to late, energy shot through the chains that bound him and through his arms. Abel thrashed and opened his mouth in a silent scream.

Myles smiled as he saw Abel's hopeless form. He slashed the knife across Abel's face before throwing the knife into the mans shoulder. A knocking came from the door. Myles looked up, frowning. "What?"

Present day:

Abel woke up with a jolt, breathing heavily. Every time he went to sleep he had nightmares, so it really wasn't any surprise. He looked up at the clock, once his breathing had calmed down. Eight am was emblazoned on it. Curses, why did he have to wake up so early?

Taking a deep breath, Abel moved his hands to his sides. He flinched from the pain of moving his body, and clenched his teeth. Abel kicked away the sheets with his feet. Next was the hard part, actually standing up. Cursing all the death hunters silently, he swung his feet over the side of the bed and in one fluid motion stood up. Abel gasped as pain shot through his spine. Clutching his stomach he leaned against the wall trying to catch his breath.

"What are you doing?" Abel jumped at the sound of the voice, and quickly snapped his head to Havel. Spots began to cloud his vision, but Abel blinked them away, he was going to let himself faint. "You're in a worse condition then me, you shouldn't be up," Havel commented. He was sitting on the side of his bed facing Abel as he put on his boots.

Abel just stared at the man to shocked to say anything. Why hadn't he noticed Havel was up? Abel sighed and slowly pushed himself away from the wall, as if to prove to the man that he was okay. Leaning down, he picked up a black shirt that was folded neatly in the chair. He slipped it on gingerly, and much slower then he would have liked to. "I'm fine," he whispered.

He slowly made his way to the door and had his hand on the door knob, when Seth came in, along with Tres, Kate, Asthe, and Ion.

Seth smiled at Abel, but her eye's told a different story. There was worry and anger in them. If no one was with her, she would be yelling at Abel by know. Fortunately Asthe took care of it for her, "what the hell are you doing out of bed?" Asthe roared. She had her hands on her hips and towered over Abel. "Do you want to hurt yourself more then you already are? You idiot!"

Abel blinked up at Asthe then lowered his gaze to Seth, as if asking for help. His sister did nothing and continued smiling at him. He looked back up at Asthe, and opened his mouth before snapping it shut. He almost forgot about his fangs. He hoped she hadn't noticed. Abel lowered his gaze to the ground and dropped his shoulders and head, casting shadows over his features. "I thought I could go out side," he mumbled, "I don't want to stay in bed today," Abel felt like a little child, who had just been caught for eating candy after bed time. "Why are all of you here?" he asked, then raised his gaze again. 'Stupid fangs! Disappear.'

"We're here to discuss our plans on what we're going to do," Ion said, as everyone filed into the room, and sat down. Asthe had grabbed Abel by the wrist and was guiding Abel back, despite his protests. "Seth has updated us about the base you found last night," Ion informed Abel. "I think the empty base and the attack on the ship was just a distraction from the ordens real plan. We plan to stay here for another weak, before leaving."

Seth picked up from where Ion ended, "While we stay here, we will be sweeping the town, to find any members of the orden. Once we leave, we need to contact the vatican, and then head to the other hideouts the orden has set up," Seth ended. She eyed her brother, waiting for him to add something, or tell fault in their plans. Surprisingly he said nothing, and just nodded. "By the way how are you feeling?" Seth asked Abel, "you have a lot of internal injuries, and being a terran you aren't healing as fast as a methuselah. I'm surprised you're not dead yet," Seth had an amused look about her that only Abel could pick out.

"Well, I feel a lot better then I actually look. So I would like to get out of bed," Abel looked sternly at Asthe, who had a firm grip on his shoulder. He felt horrible and it had taken a lot of energy to just sit up. Each time he moved, it felt like someone was punching him in his gut. He didn't want to admit it, but Seth was right; he was healing much slower then he should have been, almost like a terran.

"You, are not well and will stay in bed," Asthe commanded, she still had her hand on his shoulder as she pushed him down.

Abel looked at Asthe and those around him. They all had worried looks on their face. Well all except for Tres. "Fine," he grumbled, "I'll stay in bed… but only for today." He didn't want to worry those around him. Abel turned his head to the side, so he wouldn't be facing anyone. He hated it when he was the center of attention, and could feel every one eyeing him. If he didn't have to pretend to have lost his memories, he would have laughed everything off, and would have gotten his way.

**A/N:** Please review, it really helps.

Disclaimer: I don't own Myles. Flame800900 created him, so if you want to read more about him, I highly suggest you read Flame800900 s stories.

_FountainofRoses:_ I thought about what you had said for almost the whole day, after you reviewed. And then the light bulb went off, literally, my mom turned off the light and told me to go to sleep. Anyway back on topic... I plan on writing another book/story where... well you'll just have to wait and see. It'll be a sequel to this one, so I won't start writing it until, i'm done with this one.


	19. Chapter 19

(A few days later)

Abel rolled of his bed, and stood up. He still felt stiff and sore from being forced to stay in bed for the past couple of days. Both his sister and Asthe had forced him to rest, and wouldn't even let him sit up. God, he wished he looked older again, at least then he wouldn't be treated like a child.

Abel stretched out his arms and arched his back, almost cat like. His fangs still protruded out of his gums. If Abel opened his mouth you would be able to see the tips of his canines. His eyes were also tinted red. At least he could be thankful the crusnik hadn't activated farther, so that his eyes would become blood shot and his fangs would grow to be just under an inch long. Strangly enough the crusnik hadn't tried to speak to him at all, even though he was in his weakened state.

None of his wounds were fully healed yet, but he was numb to most of the pain. Tres had given him some pain killers, the night they had talked of their plans. In just three more days they would be leaving for the other bases. Abel could only hope that the orden really did give up on taking the queens life. Sighing Abel walked out the door, hoping his sister and Asthe wouldn't be up yet. He really needed to get out a little.

XXX

"Where the hell is that brat!" a frustrated voice growled down the hall.

Abel looked up from his book and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Oh, crud. It was eight am and it seemed Asthe was up. He was going to get the yelling of a life times. He could practically hear her scolding him already.

"Abel Nightroad! You should be in bed! Not out here, your still injured. What do you think would happen if you opened up your cuts again!" Asthe stormed into the room. Her voice got louder and louder the closer she got to him. "You little brat! You're making everyone worried!"

Yup, in the last few days Asthe had started to call Abel brat. She was treating him more and more like a child by the second. Abel on the other hand had gone from serious person who didn't like talking, to a child who was constantly being scolded. More then likely part of this was because Seth had also been getting on his case about it and Asthe had just picked up from her.

"I'm not a brat," Abel half growled, half pouted as he lowered his gaze to hide his fangs. Asthe probably thought he was doing so because she was scolding him. "I've been in bed for half a week, its driving me crazy," Abel looked up at Asthe. He knew what he could do to make her stop, well he could at least try. "Aren't I supposed to be an adult already? Just because I shrank and lost my memories doesn't mean I actually became a child. You have no right to treat my like I'm a kid or tell me what to do," he had rapped his upper lip over his fangs as he said this.

Asthe stared there processing what he had just said. Slowly rage crept into her features and she grabbed Abel by the collar of his shirt and pulled it toward her, "you may be an adult to the terrans, and may have looked like one, however compared to methuselahs you are nothing but a mere child," she retorted.

"But aren't you only in your early twenties? I thought you just awakened recently," Abel commented. If only she knew he was actually almost a millennia years old. He was practically old enough to be her great something grandfather. Heck he was probably older then her first ancestor who had been a Methuselah.

Asthe looked at him in surprise at what he just said, 'who told him I'm only in my twenties,' she thought. "Well- well, I'm still a few years older then you!" she sputtered. When they had first met Abel had said he was twenty years old.

"Just because you're a few years older then me still doesn't give you the right to treat me like a kid. I'm an adult, right? So doesn't that mean I should be allowed to make my own choices?" Abel retorted.

They were both beginning to attract a small crowd. Ion, Kate and Seth were both standing, or in Kate's case floating a little ways off, all staring at Abel and Asthe. To them in must have been like watching a play or something. Now all they needed was popcorn, or did they even know what that was?

There was a moment silence from Asthe. She didn't know what to say. Suddenly the others started to laugh, though Seth just smiled. Abel and Asthe snapped their head to every one. Asthe had an embarrassed look on her face, while Abel looked like he was just pissed. The difference in the two's face made everyone start laughing even harder, even Seth was now giggling silently. Abel straightened a little and placed a careful facade over his features, though his eyes where still stern.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen Abel so serious in my life," Kate gasped at the same time Ion commented, "He's got you there Asthe, you guys are around the same age," Ion clutched his stomach.

"Abel, Asthe's just concerned that you'll hurt yourself," Seth chided smiling sweetly at her brother. She had also started seeing him more as a child in the past couple of days rather then her older brother. To Asthe she said, "if he wants to walk around let him go. If he gets hurt it'll be his own fault, and then you can yell at him all you want and he won't be able to come with a good argument." Seth got awarded with a glare from Abel.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Asthe commented.

Abel snorted, if only they had continued arguing a little longer he would have won. Now he had to make sure he didn't hurt himself, so the Asthe wouldn't scold him. "Whatever," he rolled his eyes, "at least I can get out of that cursed bed."

"Hmm. Well you still can't, go out of this ship and help search for the orden," Asthe yelped in triumph. Did she really want to continue this argument? She just had to win didn't she? Well Abel wasn't going to let her have the satisfaction. It had been a long time since he had argued with someone and he would win no matter what.

"Oh, really? No body's here while you, Seth, Ion, and Tres are sweeping the town. I could leave any time I wanted. Kate can't exactly stop me from leaving and neither can Havel, he's still injured." Abel retorted, he was no longer frowning, and had a spark of mischief in his voice.

"What's that about me being injured?" a gruff voice sounded from the entrance. Havel walked into the room, he no longer had a sling around his arm. He only had bandages rapped tightly around it.

Abel looked at Havel, "oh, nothing!" he replied as Asthe said, "he doesn't think you can beat him in a fight."

"What? I never said that," Abel looked at Asthe.

"Yeah, well it sure sounded like it!" Asthe said.

"Okay. I'll just leave you two alone for now," Havel shook his head as Asthe and Abel began to bicker again. He took a seat on a couch farther away from the two, near where the others where. "What's gotten in to them?" he asked.

Kate answered his question, "Abel said once everyone leaves to go on their watch at town that he could slip out of the ship with no problems. He said I could do nothing to stop him and that you couldn't either with your injured arm," kate informed Havel.

"Well, that's certainly a great, bluff however he has a lot of injuries." Havel shook his head. "I'm surprised he's even able to stand up, If anything he should be in a coma. I Highly doubt he would able to stand up right now if it weren't for the pain killers." In the last few day's Havel had seen the injuries Abel had, and had even helped him to bandage his wounds and put the ointment on them. They were still bleeding heavily and Tres had to stitch up a few of them, because he was loosing to much blood. But some reason Abel had refused blood transfusion, Havel couldn't figure out why. He had blood type O so it should have been okay, if Abel took a little of his blood.

XXX

It was 12 o'clock when Abel and Asthe finally got tired of arguing. They had bickered for a whooping four hours. Somehow, it went from Abel getting hurt to-

"Abel you can't beat me at chess!" Asthe yelled (she took the words right out of the authors mouth, was that even supposed to happen?)

Abel rolled his eyes, "you want to bet?" he snickered.

"No," Seth interrupted, "she doesn't." Seth looked to Asthe, "We need to patrol the city Asthe, this game can wait till then. Oh, and Abel," Seth gave Abel the look and lowered her voice so only he could hear, "If you dare sneak out, I promise you I'll make good on that little deal that we had, back at the empire. You still owe me," louder she said, "Just don't go getting into any trouble."

"Fine," Abel mumbled. He was beginning to feel sore again because the pain killers were wearing off. Besides he was in his nine hundreds and arguing with someone who wasn't even a tenth of his age, he was a joke. For now he'd just be grateful that he could get out of bed. "Looks like you win Asthe, I'll be staying in the ship," he smiled at her, before walking back to the couch to read his book.

"Huh, what just happened?" Asthe looked at Abels retreating form, to Seth.

Seth shrugged, "oh, nothing. I just had to remind him of something," she looked up at Asthe with a glint of amusement in her eye, "it's called black mail." She declared, acting more like the age she looked like, rather then her actual age.

"What?"

"In any case get ready we'll be leaving in exactly ten minutes, Ion and Tres have already left to patrol their part of the town," Seth informed Asthe, becoming serious once again.

**A/N: **Please review, if your one of the people who are reading this story.

Fountainofroses: don't worry about it, in the end I should be thanking you for making me think of more ideas. I was actually worried that I wouldn't be able to think of anything else to write, after I finished this story. So its a good thing that you made me think hard.


	20. Chapter 20

Isaac paced in the small underground room. He had ordered Dietrich to send his puppets to the Iron maiden, but for some reason the terran wasn't back yet and it had been 3 days since then. Isaac had the sudden urge to punch the wall but instead stopped himself and placed his palm on it. Leaning on his hand, and engrossed in his thoughts he didn't hear anyone enter the room, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I hope you took care of our little issue?" Cain asked smiling sweetly at Isaac with his eyes closed and tilted his head to the side.

"Yes, of course," Isaac bowed to Cain. "I dealt with is three days ago. I sent the puppet master to their ship and I also sent a few of his puppets to our hideout," he added.

"Good," Cain nodded, "Where is he right now?

"I'm afraid I don't know," Isaac answered truthfully, he could feel himself sweating under the collar and could only hope his master wasn't aware of his uncertainty. "If I had to guess, he is probably trying to figure out how to assassinate the queen."

Cain nodded his head to this deep in thought. He didn't really care if Dietrich killed the queen or not, it was more of something to amuse himself with more then anything. The child was a genius, he was almost the same as Cain himself in the manner that they both like to play with other people and their feelings. "We'll be leaving tonight for Estonia. Dietrich can stay here, I don't care what he does." Cain said, as he walked further into the room, where his regeneration chamber was.

"Yes," Isaac answered. He headed to the door, so he could get everything ready for their trip to Estonia.

XXX

"I'm done on my side," Seth's voice came over from the radio. "Is everyone else done?"

"Yes," replied Ion and Asthe as Tres said, "positive."

A few seconds passed until Virgils voice broke through, "sorry but I wasn't able to get to the ghettos. The queen has a visitor and I need to be with her."

"A visitor?" Seth asked. "Has the queen ever met this person before? Who is it?"

"I'm afraid the queen hasn't told me her relationship with the visitor. However I'm sure it's not one of her relatives." Virgil explained. "She also didn't tell me his name."

"What does he look like?" Tres asked.

Virgil paused for awhile before answering, the queen and her visitor had just entered the room he was in. Whispering he said, "he has brown hair, and eyes. He's in his late teens by the looks of it."

"He might be the puppet master, a member of the orden. I suggest you watch him carefully. We'll be there as fast as we can to get a look at him," Seth said, her voice sounded extremely calm in a situation like this.

"You don't have to worry, I won't let the queen out of my sight," Virgil commented, he was still whispering. The queen and terran where both chatting happily, talking about a painting, hanging on the wall.

"Father Tres, you can head back to the ship, in case anything happens," Seth ordered. "Asthe and Ion, we will both meet at the palace. We'll need to sneak in since Virgil is keeping an eye, on the suspect, so lets meet at the park."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The Methuselah and the empress easily jumped over the gate of the palace. The landed silently in bushes. Seth motioned for everyone to follow her with a jerk of head and quickly ran a little distance before jumping onto the roof of the palace, and raced along it. Ion and Asthe quickly followed her. Seth finally came to a stop above a window. She could hear chatter coming from within the room below them. She silently told those following her to stay on the roof and jumped onto the balcony.

Seth's eyes widened when she saw the puppet master talking to the Queen. She could see micro thin wires spread web like, around the whole room, not even a Methuselah could see it. Every cell in her body wanted to lunge at him. She still remembered how he had took control of one of her children, Radu. Her muscles automatically tensed, each time he made the slightest movement.

Even though she wanted to attack, she couldn't. If she did the Queen would take it as an attack and would, likely put her in prison. And even if she did mention the wires, Dietrich would only move it around so no one would be able to touch it, Dang it, the enemy was right there and she was powerless to do anything! Seth jumped back onto the roof. "It's Dietrich," she confirmed, "the queen's talking to him right now."

Asthe reached for the comm on her ear, and tried to reach Virgil, but his radio was turned off. "Virgil's, not answering." She had a worried expression on her face.

"As long as the queen doesn't eat anything with him, she should be fine," Ion said.

Seth jumped back onto the balcony, to watch those with in the room. Her eyes narrowed. On the wires she could just barely make out some kind of clear liquid running along it. A few drops of the liquid landed on the queen, but she seemed to not notice and continued talking to Dietrch.

Seth looked at Virgil, he seemed to be intent on watching every movement the puppet master was making. Unfortunately he couldn't see the wire. Seth waved her hand, to get his attention. He didn't seem to take notice, so she tapped on the glass, lightly so that only a methuselah or crusnik could hear it. As she did so yet another drop of the strange liquid dripped onto the queen. The wires shifted a bit as the queen and puppet master slowly made there way down the hall.

"Yesss?" Virgil hissed into the radio.

"It's the puppet master," Seth said through the radio. She could just make out Virgil's shocked expression through the window as she told him this. "There's wires surrounding the whole room, theres also some sort of liquid dripping off them. It could be the poison." Virgil's face paled considerably at this last bit of news.

Virgil glanced at the window toward Seth before nodding and advancing onto the queens guest. He put a hand on Dietrich's shoulder and the boy turned around, an innocent look on his face. "Yes?" he asked.

"What's your name?" Virgil growled.

The queen looked at Virgil, a bit surprised at his sudden outburst. But she seemed to understand his warning and took a step back, however she stopped when something thin bit into her back. She turned her head a bit, and another invisible source sliced her cheek.

"So I've been found," Dietrich laughed calmly at the man. "Well it's not going to help, the queen has already been subjected to our new drug," he announced, with an evil smirk. The puppet master snapped his fingers and the wires loosened around the room, and seemed to fly toward him. As soon as every last inch of the invisible wire was sucked into his cloths, he collapsed.

The glass door slid open as Seth raced into the room. She got to Dietrich right after he fell, she knew this body, was probably another one of his puppets, but decided to check anyway. Seth could feel the other two methuselah enter the room but didn't bother to turn to them, instead she walked up to Virgil and waited for him to finish tending the Queen. He had a handkerchief to her face, and kept asking if she was okay.

XXX

Virgil bowed on one knee and placed his hand over his heart. "My queen I'm sorry, that I wasn't able to fulfill my duty to protect you. I accept any punishment you see fit."

"That's not necessary, Virgil. Please stand," the queen said. She turned to everyone in the room, "I take it you're also with that silver haired child who said someone was after my life?"

"Yes," everyone replied simultaneously, as Virgil slowly stood up with his head hanging low, as if he were utterly defeated.

**A/N:** Sorry, I wasn't able to update for the past few days. My computer died, and I need to replace the battery. The mac store didn't have it so we had to order it from the mainland. Anyway it finally came in! and my battery lasts for about 4 to six hours! It's so much better then when it could only last for an hour, tops. I never realized how hard it was to type on a ipad until now...

Fountainofroses: If you want to review, all you need to do is log on then read the chapter as you normally do and click the review button way at the bottom of the chapter. You don't need to typed your name in or anything, just type in your review, and then click "submit/feedback." good luck on your fanfic, I'm sure it'll turn out great! if you need any help just ask me. I actually needed help as well when I first started. I didn't know how to load a document on here.


	21. Chapter 21

Reading a book for five hours straight was beginning to get boring, reading a book you already read twice was even more boring. Sitting on a couch doing nothing but moving his eyes along the page and flipping it was suicidal.

Abel slowly pushed himself off the couch, the pain killers he had taken had already worn off two hours ago. Putting his book down, Abel timidly stretched his arms and legs. His whole body was aching, and to make matters worse, he had bitten the inside of his mouth, a few times while he argued with Asthe. Abel looked to where Havel was talking to Kate while he drank some of her herbal tea. Sighing he made his way to the infirmary.

Abel gulped down the last two pain killers. Hopefully they would last long longer then the last two he had taken. Abel paused when he heard someone approaching the ship from the out side. At least he could be happy that his senses hadn't dulled.

XXX

"Where's every one else?" Havel asked Tres, just as Abel entered the room.

"The Queen has a visitor and the others felt they needed to check on the visitor to make sure it's no one from the orden," Tres stated blandly. "As I am not as fast as the others, Lady Seth had ordered me to come back here."

"Hmm, I see," Havel said.

Abel had a bad feeling about this. Without alerting the others to his presence, he made a strait bee line to the hatch and exited the ship. Once out, he sighed and took off to the palace, hoping everyone was okay, especially the queen.

He stopped when he finally neared the gates and made sure no one was looking at him before he jumped over the gate. On the other side Abel ran along the building until he heard talking coming from one of the windows.

"I take it you're also with that silver haired child who said someone was after my life?" A voice sounded from inside the room.

"Yes," came the response of what Abel could make out to be the voices of his friends.

Taking a deep breath Abel jumped onto the balcony of a room right next to the one the queen was in. He opened the sliding door and entered the empty room, he then proceeded to leave that room and enter the room that the Queen was in. He would have been doomed if he had jumped onto the balcony with his friends in the room.

Everyone jerked their heads to Abel when they entered the room. Lord Welsh and Asthe had both raised their weapons and Ion his claws, but lowered it soon after when they realized it was Abel.

"What are you doing here?" Asthe growled at Abel.

"I didn't want to stay in the ship," Abel answered. Abel bowed his head to the queen then raised his head, as he looked at the body on the ground. "So the puppet master escapes again?" Abel sighed, "what happened?"

Virgil raised his head a bit when he answered Abel's question, "he came here seeking an audience with the queen."

"Dietrich, had wires all around this room and they all had some sort of liquid on it," Seth added.

"Liquid? Did any of it get on anyone? It could be the new drug they were testing," Abel could hear the methuselah in the room gasp, while the Queen shifted.

Everyone in the room looked at Seth for the answer, none of them had seen the wires she had spoken off. She nodded her head, "she got some of it dripped on her," Seth motioned to the queen. "The wire also cut into her cheek," she added. Seth had an apologetic look on her face and she said all of this.

The queen laughed and put her hands on her hips. "I'm fine, okay? So stop worrying," she sighed as she looked at each of them with a stern yet warm smile. "Come, now. Lets all have dinner together, as an apology. We can also talk more about that fellow there." She added looking down at the lifeless form of one of Dietrich puppets.

XXX

Virgil and the others all sat around a small dinning table as the servants brought in the food and drinks. The room was deathly quietly and was only pierced by the shuffling of feet from the servants.

"Well, lets all dig in," the queen exclaimed with a happy smile.

The others helped them selves to the food, as Virgil stared at the table. A blank expression on his face. Why in the world was she so happy? If anything she should be freaking out, at the moment, but Virgil had learned that, that's just the way she is. The queen always put others before herself. No doubt she wouldn't even ask anyone in the room about the drug unless they brought it up first. Virgil bit his lip at the thought of this. His queen was going to die in a mere year, and although she knew about it she wasn't going to inconvenience people.

"What's wrong Virgil?" The queen asked, smiling warmly at him.

"You've been- the drug is in your system," Virgil bit out. He didn't bother looking at the queen, in fear that he would end up scolding her for not caring.

"I'm feeling perfectly fine Virgil," the queen replied. "Besides this drug takes about a year to kill right?" everyone in the room nodded, a questioning look on their faces as they wondered what she was getting at. "If this drug does end up taking my life, it won't be to much of a loss. After all I am very old and should be dying from old age any day now," she gave smirk to lessen the seriousness of what she had just said.

Virgil glanced at those around him for help. His eye's immediately fell on Abel the only other person who was listening to them intently. 'Please,' he begged silently

"You may feel fine right now, and the side affects of the drug may take about a month to start showing up, however it would be best to be careful," Abel said. "You will feel great pain when you sleep and according the note we have the person who is exposed will die exactly a year later." Abel said, he took no time to sugar coat his words, and said it as it was.

Sighing the queen said, "I understand your worries. I know I should have listened to you from the beginning, but whats done is done, all I can really do now is ask for you to go after that man, Dietrich and arrest him."

"That's what we plan to do," Seth said, "we want to capture him and everyone within the orden."

"On top of that, they also used a drug on me," Abel said, giving her a sheepish grin.

"And what exactly are the side effects?" the queen asked.

"Amnesia, and according to everyone here I shrunk," Abel answered between bites.

"Don't forget your eye's mysteriously got better," Ion added and Abel nodded in response.

Virgil eyed Abel suspiciously, he remembered having doubts about the kid having amnesia before, and it was beginning to resurface again. "Can you remember anything?" he asked.

"Nope," Abel lied, he didn't look up to meet Virgil gaze and was focused on his food.

The rest of their meal was spent in complete silence, until Abel finally finished his meal and excused himself, saying he would need a head start in getting to the Iron maiden. He bid the queen farewell and advised her live out the rest of her life with no regrets.

Thirty minutes later every one else finished there meals. Seth was talking to the queen about politics and a possible treaty between Albion and the empire. The three vampires where also talking about other things.

"Thank you, for everything," Virgil said extending his hand to Ion then Asthe. "You've been a great help. I'll be sure to contact you if we find any leads on the orden."

"Sorry again for all the trouble I caused you," the queen smiled sweetly at them. "Tell that silver haired child that I'll take care of my self, and will see a doctor."

"Oh, and I believe Abel may be keeping something from all of you," Virgil said before the methuselah could take off. He got a weird look from all of them. "He doesn't act like someone who has amnesia, I did go to medical school for awhile so I should know."

Everyone continued to give him weird looks before they said their good-byes again and took off into the night.

**A/N:** After not writing anything for the past few days I'm finding it a bit hard to get back on track and start writing again. Oh well, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please review. All comments help.


	22. Chapter 22

Mwahahahaha, I totally just screwed Abel up, he's in for it now! Okay, sorry but I just had to say that, now onto the next chapter :)

The minute Abel entered the Iron maiden he went straight into the infirmary and collapsed on his bed. He was so tired, not even Kate's yelling at him could make him get up at the moment. Abel felt pathetic, never before had he felt so weak.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Kate screamed at Abel. If she got any louder he swore glass would brake. Abel turned his head to face Kate, but otherwise didn't move. "Young man, I demand an explanation," she put her hands on her hips and was floating above Abel head.

Abel groaned and moved his head so that he was facing the other side of the room. This didn't help at all because Kate merely floated over him and began her bickering, again. Why did everyone have to make life hard for him? "I took a walk in the park," he said; saying the first thing that came to mind. Abel couldn't hear what Kate said next because the second it came out of his mouth, Asthe came storming into the room, Ion right behind her trying to calm her down, while Havel was asking her questions, on what happened. A second later Seth came in with a cup of tea, and sat down drinking it. She almost looked like she was at a tea party with friends, but Abel knew better, she was going to enjoy the show at Abel's expense.

"You," Asthe yelled. She grabbed Abel by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him up. He felt like a puppy being carried by his mother. "I want you to tell me why you're acting like you have amnesia,"she growled as she dropped Abel on his stomach, on the bed.

"Huh?"

"You heard me!" Now everyone was looking at Abel waiting for an answer. Seth on the other hand covered her smile by drinking her tea. It was as though she was saying 'I got a secret.'

Abel turned to face the others, and sat up. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked, rubbing his neck. 'Ooooh, crud. Just where did find that out?' Abel glared at Seth, 'if she did it, I swear I'll make her pay," he thought. Seth just looked back at Abel and slightly shook her head. "I don't know what your talking about," he said turning back to Asthe.

She was baring her fangs at him. She crossed her arms, and drew herself up to her full height. "Fine. Mind answering another question? Why do you keep drawing your lip into your mouth?"

Abel looked at Asthe wide eyed, "It's a habit," he said simply. "And if you're going to ask where in the world I got that habit from, then I need to remind you that I don't remember."

"Yeah? And what about your eye's? You didn't really think I wouldn't notice did you?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"It has a red tint to it," Asthe said, and was echoed by Ion's, "you used to wear glasses."

"I don't know why my eye's are red, maybe I was born with red eyes?" Abel said. He was only saying what came to mind first.

"You had, blue eyes when we first met," Ion said.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that? I have amnesia remember?" Abel bit out. He wasn't a very religious person but he made an exception and sent a silent prayer, 'please help me get out of this.'

"Lord Welsh, told everyone that you don't behave like someone who has amnesia," Seth explained. Oh, thank you Lord! "Asthe and Ion were just over reacting." She turned to the two methuselah, namely Asthe and said, "He obviously doesn't have his memories, if he did, he wouldn't be acting that serious and he would have slipped up by now." Now if only Abel could get God to give him an ice ream.

"Uh- yes" Asthe said. She was still unsure but she couldn't question the empress.

"If you don't mind, I'd really like to get some sleep," Abel yawned, suppressing the urge to glare at Asthe.

Everyone turned to leave but soon turned back around when Kate started yelling at him again. Oh, boy was this going to be a long night.

"Abel Nightroad!" Kate yelled, "Don't you dare think for one, second that you can just ignore me."

"Goodnight," Abel replied, as he plopped onto his stomach.

"Oh, no you don't-"

"Don't what?"

"You little brat! You're grounded!"

"No, I'm not. I'm older then you, you can't ground me."

"I can now."

*Sigh*

"You're not supposed to be going out side! Your injured remember! What would have happened if you got lost of hurt yourself"

"I wouldn't have to listen to you yelling my head off right now?"

"Gah! Never mind!" Kate flickered out of the room. If she had a solid body she would have slammed the door, and taken it off the hinges if she could. That Abel, was far more irritating then she last remembered. Who would have thought, a know it all brat who didn't listen to any one would become a klutzy, somewhat cowardly bumbling idiot? Kate snorted at the thought. To her both the older Abel and the younger one were irritating people, who needed to be watched constantly. She kicked the side of the wall, to only have her foot go right through it. At times like these when she wanted to express her anger it would have been better to have a solid body.

The room stood in silence for a while. Everyone was caught off guard by that sudden outburst. Abel didn't mean to get Kate mad, but he needed to keep up with the act. If the other's knew he had been faking the amnesia, ever since they left the empire, they would ask him all sorts of questions; like what triggered his memory in the empire, (after all to them he had only been there once.) Then again he could just tell them he was beginning to remember but then he would be expected to act like an idiot, again. The mere thought of it made him shiver, he hated having to act like a klutzy idiot. If anything Abel blamed the glasses for everything, they made his eyes hurt and he couldn't even see anything out of them. Why in the world had the last pope been keeping those glasses with him in the first place? It Just didn't make any sense.

Behind him, Abel could hear everyone begin to shuffle out of the room. They didn't talk as they did so, no doubt all were thinking about how Abel was acting strangely. Once sure everyone was out, he turned his head to where he was sure his sister would be.

"Yes?" Abel asked.

"How's your cuts?" Seth asked, as she went through the folds of her clothing as if looking for something.

"I'm still healing just as slow as a terran," Abel confessed. "I'm feeling fine right now, but the pain killers will be wearing off by tomorrow morning."

Seth sniffed the air, "you haven't changed your bandages have you?" Abel turned his head he other way in response. Seth rolled her eyes, before taking hold of the blanket and yanking it out from under him. "Get up," she ordered, "we need to clean your cuts."

"But it's not like it can get infected," Abel snorted, he still wasn't looking at Seth.

"If we don't change the bandages your blood will get onto your shirt and the bed," Seth sighed.

"Fine, Abel huffed. He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and removed his shirt while Seth retrieved the bandages. He began to peel away the cloth on his chest while Seth did the same to one of his legs. Abel winced when he got to the part that was actually touching his skin. It was covered in blood.

"When you said you're healing just as slow as a terran you really meant it," Seth commented as she redressed the wound and rapped a clean bandage around his leg. "I'll help you put a new bandage on your torso," she looked up at him, with an all knowing look in her eyes.

Abel nodded and said nothing as his sister applied a bit alcohol on his more serious wounds and put the bandages on. When she was done she said,"Here drink some of this," Seth had a metal cylinder in her hand and was unscrewing the top. "It's my last vile of blood, so be happy I'm giving it to you."

"Thanks for helping me redress my wounds," Abel thanked his sister, as he ignored what she had just said about blood it wouldn't help any way. "Good night."

Seth snorted and rolled her eyes, brothers, what could you do? "G'night," she said as she walked out the door, she had left the vile of blood on the counter top near Abel's bed.

**A/N:** In my next chapter everyone's going to watching Abel closely to see if he slips up. Sorry to say but there won't be another fighting scene for a while.

Please review.


	23. Chapter 23

Three days had passed, since they left Albion, and in just a few hours they would be back in Vatican territory. There they where to drop off Tres and Havel. Tres was needed by Caterina's side and Havel needed to report his mission. While there Abel guessed Caterina would be sending someone else to come with them, most likely it would William so that he could keep an eye on him. Caterina would also have William do more tests on Abel to see his current condition. Abel shivered at the thought. If Caterina found he got his memories back she would tell him off for not taking things more seriously and for not helping her with politics. She would also keep a closer eye on him to see what else he was hiding.

Why in the world had he even helped in the first place? He hated politics. Must have been old habits.

Speaking of which, why did Virgil have to go and tell everyone he didn't act like a person with amnesia? He just made Abel's life a whole lot harder. Now he would need to be careful with what he said. Not to mention his stupid fangs didn't disappear yet. Gah, and then there's Asthe, that women kept treating Abel like he was a kid, who needed to be potty trained. Kate was also beginning to treat Abel like a kid, though she always did, even before he shrunk.

Abel kicked off the blanket and sat up. It was still early so everyone should still be sleeping, then again they were still stuck in Albion time so maybe not. Abel changed into his black pants and button up shirt. The blood his sister had left him was still by his bed, and was still completely full.

His less serious wounds were all healed, the other wounds he got such as the stabs, and bullets where all healed and no longer bled, but his muscles still felt pulled and he had large bruises. His vampirism on the other hand was still the same, if anything Abel felt his fangs had become longer, though it probably only felt that way since he kept feeling his fangs with his tongue and thought about it to much.

Once changed he walked out of room. Havel had move out of the infirmary two days before, when his arm had healed so Abel didn't have to worry about waking him up when he opened the door.

"When will we get to the Vatican?" Abel asked Kate once he was inside of the main room.

Kate jumped at the sound of his voice and turned around to greet him. She had been reading a book about herbal tea's and didn't seem to happy to be interrupted, "soon," she replied quickly, and returned to look at her book.

"How soon, is soon?" Abel asked, Kate glared at him, "what? I was just asking because soon to me might be a long time to you or the other way around."

"In about six hours," she growled.

"See that's not very fast to me, it's like a whole day," Abel said, as he walked to the nearest couch and took a seat. Kate grunted in response.

The others woke up an hour later, and everyone chatted happily while they played boardgames and the such like they had on their way to Albion. Just like last time Seth was the one to drag Abel into the games.

XXX

When the ship finally landed Abel felt the slight jolt, as it touched the ground. He could tell everyone else had also felt it because they were now all looking up and putting away the board games and cards. Sighing, Abel helped them put everything away and tried to take his time. Although he had wanted to get to the vatican as fast as possible he now wanted nothing more then to just stay in the ship.

"Hey, shrimp!" a tall man with a mane like a lion called to Abel as he exited the ship. Havel and Tres where behind him. "Red and I will be joining you on the mission," once Abel got near him the man swung his arm over Abel's shoulder and leaned on him. "By the way Caterina wants to talk to you."

"Uh-huh," Abel responded as he continued to walk away and felt Leon's hand slip from his shoulder. Behind him he could hear Havel talking to Leon and could tell Tres was waiting for Havel to finish talking before he took him to meet with Caterina.

Abel passed the gardens then took a right over the bridge that connected two buildings. Then another right and another right, and finally a left and there he was. Right in

front of Caterina's office. He knocked on the door.

"Come in Abel," came Caterina's voice. God, that was creepy. How did she always know when it was him? It was almost like she was a GPS or something. Abel walked into the room. He was greeted by Caterina and William.

"Have a seat my friend," William said. He had his pipe in his hand as usual and his cane was leaned against his chair. Abel took the seat right next to him.

"Gun slinger has told me the queen has been drugged," Caterina said. "What were you doing at that time?"

"I was, in the iron maiden," he responded, 'Asthe and my sister wouldn't let me leave because I was injured," he added to himself.

"Doing what?"

"Death hunters ambushed the Iron maiden and I got injured, so Asthe and Kate wouldn't let me leave the ship and told me to rest," Abel answered truthfully, giving her the short answer. "They keep treating me like I'm a kid," he mumbled under his breath.

"Injured?" Caterina questioned and thought on this for awhile. "Okay, I'll except that excuse but next time I won't be so lenient," she paused for a second. "Tres and Havel will be staying here. Instead I'll be sending in Dandelion and Esther. You are to infiltrate their base in Uber Berlin and capture those who don't resist. After that you will go to Estonia and do the same thing there. If you want you can have a few people stay in Berlin while the rest of the group goes to Estonia. It's up to you and the others, I just want it done."

"Okay, is that all?" Abel asked.

Caterina shook her head, and William answered his question. "We believe that you should be getting your memories back soon, if not you should already have them back." He eyed Abel to see if he would react in anyway, but Abel put up a good front and nothing showed. William continued, "I need to get a blood sample to run a few tests, but after that you may leave."

"No, you will be leaving tomorrow." Caterina spoke up, and everyone turned to her. She folded her hands in front of her as she spoke, "I need to ask you a few questions, and I'm sure everyone from the empire would like a break," she explained.

"I'm sure everyone would appreciate that," Abel said calmly.

"Well, then I have my syringe right here with me," William said as he reached into his robes and pulled out a needle with two glass viles. "Let me take a few blood samples, and I will be on my way."

Abel suppressed the urge to flinch when he saw the long needle and instead nodded and held out his arm.

"Roll up your sleeve," William commanded patiently. Abel did so and…

**A/N:** Oh boy am I going to be tired tomorrow. Biggest cliff hanger ever, actually not really. here let me spoil it for you, abel screams his head off and faints... just kidding, you'll just have to wait till tomorrow or friday. I would continue writing this chapter but i really need to go sleep.

Fountainofroses: I wouldn't mind if you sent cain over but if you did I would have to scold him if he threw a tantrum. And yes your right about that silver thing. My brain was saying silver because silver sounds better then metal but I changed it. Thank you.


	24. Chapter 24 Pranks

"Roll up your sleeve," William ordered Abel.

Abel slowly did so and stuck his arm back out for William. The professor took his arm and wiped his arm with alcohol. Once sure the arm was clean the professor held onto Abel's arm tightly, to make sure he didn't run, like he used to.

Abel suppressed the urge to yank his hand out of Williams grip as the needle pricked at his arm. It didn't hurt much, but he was still deathly scared off the large needle. He watched wide eyed as his blood slowly filled the two viles the professor had brought with him. It was going much more slowly then he would have liked. Finally the needle was removed and Abel quickly yanked his hand away, and rubbed around it with the other. He didn't want to touch the small cut. Once William had the blood, he held it up to the light before nodding and walking out the door.

"You never change," Caterina commented once the door closed behind William.

"Am I that easy to read?" Abel asked, as he turned to Caterina.

"No. If you where I would know what you where thinking right now," Caterina said as she gave him, her steely gaze. "So when did you get your memories back?"

Abel rubbed his arm uncomfortably, he felt so small compared to Caterina, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. "Um. I bumped into my sister at the empire and she showed me a few pictures," he confessed.

"Does anyone know," She asked.

"No," Abel shook his head. "I didn't want to tell anyone. To many questions would be asked, and I don't feel like being questioned about where my manners went, and why I was acting so serious," he explained. 'It's also great that I can be my self, and don't have to smile every singe second,' he added silently. 'Oh, and I don't have to wear those glasses, and trip on my own feet and-'

"So when do you plan on telling everyone," Caterina's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"When I get my body back," Abel responded. "Or if the time requires it."

Caterina nodded her head. "I guess that's for the best… By the way, when where you going to start taking things seriously?" Abel gave her an innocent look, as if he didn't know what she was talking about. "You had perfect scores on all your tests, both on the field and on paper. You even helped me with the treaty. It turned out really well."

"Well, your father ordered me to be an idiot so, I played my role," Abel smiled sheepishly. He was really expecting Caterina to yell at him, he wasn't expecting her to be so calm about it. Granted her voice had a hint a venom in it. "What?" he asked when Caterina frowned. Oh boy, spoke to fast, she was going to blow his head off any minute now.

"I never want to see you sleeping during any meetings again!" Caterina ordered. "And don't ever waist any money during your missions like you always do. Stop tripping over your feet and breaking things. You had better quit not helping with my paper work and politics." Caterina listed.

"Okay, okay. I got it already," Abel grumbled. "Besides you should also be saying sorry for tricking me into drinking blood. You know how much I hate it."

Caterina glared at Abel, she had a lot more things she wanted to yell to him about, but decided against it. "Your fangs are showing," Abel's eye's widened slightly before he quickly opened his mouth and closed it so that his fangs where in his mouth. She continued, "You had better make sure no one see's them, we don't want anyone getting the wrong idea. Especially my brother."

"I'm aware of that," Abel said as he rapped his lip into his mouth, afraid that if he talked to much it would show again.

"I'll have the sisters prepare dinner, go tell those in the Iron Maiden that they're free to join us. It should be ready in about an hour or two," Caterina said, as she smiled at Abel reaction.

XXX

"Ah man, did I eat like a king today!" Leon sighed happily as he rubbed his stomach. "Hey kid," Leon swung his hand over Abel's shoulder and whispered into his ear, "who's that chick?" he pointed to Asthe.

Abel pushed his hand away, and continued to walk to the Iron Maiden with Leon, Esther, Ion, Asthe and of course his sister. The methuselah and his sister where all in front of him, Esther was in the back bringing up the rear. "That's the duchess of Kiev." At his words Asthe turned her head to them and gave Abel a questioning look. "Leon just wanted to know who you where," he explained.

"My name is Asthe, it's nice to meet you," she waited for them to catch up before continuing to walk. Wow, where were these manners when Abel first met her?

"My names Leon," the man said.

Abel rolled his eye's as the two began to talk and slowed his pace a little so that they where ahead of him. He almost felt sorry for Leon, the man had picked the wrong person to hit on. If he said anything wrong to Asthe, Abel was sure Asthe would put him in his place. Abel could feel Esther's eyes on him, in fact during the whole dinner Esther had been staring at him but, he couldn't blame her. If anyone else had shrunk, he would be staring at them to.

When the group got into the Iron Maiden Abel took a seat in the couch, like he always did and hunkered down into his book. The other's began playing games, even Esther had joined everyone. Leon was making a lot of noise and kept shouting whenever he made a point or won.

After a few minutes of reading Abel put his book down to watch the others play. They would be stuck on this ship for a good three days until they finally got to Berlin. It was going to be long and very, very boring trip. To pass time all they could really do was play games or read books. To Abel, both options where out. He had done enough reading for more then ten life times and had played many games when going to the Vatican. Besides all the books they had with them he had already read and every time they played a game he always won unless he let the other person win on purpose. He needed something more to do, something fun. Heck even something only a child would do would be fine, after all he did shrink so it gave him the perfect excuse.

Then it hit him; pranks. It would not only be funny but it would also distract Ion and Asthe of the fact that he got his memories back. Ever since Virgil had told them, they had begun to constantly watch Abel to see if they could find any of those signs Virgil had mentioned.

'Now then. Who should I torture?' Abel thought, 'not Seth, she would find out it was me within seconds. Asthe would be perfect but, would kill me if did any thing to her. Ion… well he hasn't bothered me at all. Leon... There's nothing good about him, the man keeps on calling me kid. Granted the others call me brat but still. Even before I shrunk he used to hit me and B-rate me and he gave me that stupid four eyes nick name. He's a total idiot,' Abel blinked a few times as he stared at Leon. He would be the perfect guinea pig. 'Okay now all I need to do is set everything up.'

(In the morning the next day)

Everyone prepared for breakfast. They all helped in making the small meals and setting down the utensils and plates. Abel's job was to get the drinks for everyone. The two methuselah wanted their water of life, Seth settled for fruit punch and Esther ordered water. Abel gave everyone their drinks before asking Leon what he wanted.

"Wine," Leon ordered between bites.

Abel smirked and headed into the small makeshift kitchen. There was only a stove, refrigerator and sink in the room and only just enough room for two people. Abel grabbed the bottle of red wine and poured half of the contents into a glass cup, he poured the other half into another cup for himself. He then went into the refrigerator and grabbed an egg. He broke it open and put the yolk into one of the cups.

"Lets see who can drink the most," Abel challenged as he entered the main room and handed Leon his drink. Everyone was staring at him this strange looks on their faces. They had never seen Abel challenge anyone to a drinking contest before and he almost always lost, even Kate had looked up from her book when Abel said that.

"Okay. But I can guarantee that you'll loose," Leon gave Abel a wolfish smile. "Have a seat, and we can have a go at it. Hey, can someone be the ref?" Abel took a seat across from Leon and placed two bottles of wine on the table, he still held onto his glass.

"Father Nightroad, I mean Abel," Esther corrected. " I don't think you should be drinking. After all you do have the body of a child right now a-and even before you shrunk you never could drink that much," she had concern etched all over her face.

"You don't have to worry about him," Ion whispered to Esther. "He acts so much differently then he did before, besides he's the one who challenged Leon so it should be fine."

"Don't worry to much," Abel put in after Ion finished whispering.

"I guess I'll be the ref," Asthe smirked and gave Abel a funny look that said, 'are you sure about this,' when both Abel and Leon nodded she said, "ready get set, GO!"

Leon chugged down his cup of wine and hardly took any notice to the egg Abel had put into it. He then snatched one of the bottles and popped open the cap and chugged it down just as fast.

"Oh, goddamn that's hot," Leon yelped. He sprinted into the kitchen and turned on the sink only to get sprayed with water. He stumbled back a few paces in surprise but then he put his hand over the nozzle of the spray and ripped off the hair band that was tied to it. The water faucet immediately began to flow. But the water wasn't clear instead it was bloody red. "Bloody murder," he cursed as he turned it off then grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator.

Abel was laughing so hard at Leon's reaction. As soon as Leon jumped out of his chair Abel was right behind him to watch the whole scene unfold. Everyone else had been to shocked that they didn't see what was wrong until Leon had screamed bloody murder. Well every one except for Seth, she was in on the prank as well. Abel watched as Leon gulped down everything in the water bottle. A few seconds later Leon spit everything out and yelped, "I can't feel my mouth." Abel bursted out laughing with his sister both nearly doubled over at Leon expense. Leon's lip was drooping and his eye's showed pure shock.

"What just happened?" Ion asked as he neared the door to the kitchen.

"I don't know," Esther and Asthe said simultaneously as they both pushed Abel away and entered the room.

"Father, are you okay?" Ester asked.

"No, I'm not!" Leon roared. He turned his gaze to Abel who was leaning against the wall and couldn't seem to stop laughing. "You'regoin ta pay 'or that, Shrimp!" his words slurred together.

"You did that?" Ester also turned to face Abel and had a mixture of madness and question on her face.

Abel gasped for air between his laughter. He was beginning to tear up. "Uh-huh," he managed to choke out before he began to laugh again. By now everyone was chuckling except for Leon and Ester who just felt sorry for him.

Leon closed the distance between himself and Abel within a few short strides. He towered over Abel as he glared at the shrimp. He was really mad, but he couldn't really blame Abel for what he had done, as a kid Leon had gotten into trouble a lot for pulling pranks on people. Abel looked up at Leon after he caught his breath and managed to stop laughing, but as soon as he saw Leon's face he couldn't help himself and collapsed to the ground with his back to the wall. That was the last string. Leon struck Abel on the head, with enough force to send the old Four Eyes stumbling back and in pain but this Shrimp didn't react much and only put his hand to his head. This was just to much. Leon stormed out of the kitchen and into his room, hoping for a little peace.

"Come on," Seth said, she had a large smile on her face. "We got to see what happens in his roo-"

"AAARGHHH!"

"Looks like we're to late," Seth looked slightly disappointed but still decided to sprint down the hall, and waited in front of Leon'r room. The others where right behind her, with Abel bringing up the rear. He was clutching his stomach.

"You seem to be having fun," Asthe commented, she was unsure about what she just said.

"Well I am over nine- ," Seth broke off when she realized kate was also there. If she reveled she has lived over 9 centuries she would also be revealing the fact she was the empress and didn't like that idea. "I haven't had this much fun in ages," she continued as she grinned. "I hope he comes out soon. The suspense is killing me."

"I hope he's okay," Esther frowned as if she didn't quite agree with everyone there. "This isn't that funny Abel," she turned to him. "You could have really hurt him… When he comes out I want you to say sorry," she ordered.

The door slowly opened and everyone held their breath. Waiting for Leon to step out.

The room was a mess. The blankets that had itchy powder on them where all thrown on the floor. Cloths where also scattered around the place. Abel and Seth had sown all of the shirt opening together so that Leon couldn't put is head threw it they also did the same to his pants. Leon's hair and back where wet, and Leon's hair had a hint of yellow on it. His torso was also stained green no doubt his whole body was also a bit green. Abel had mixed food coloring in the liquid body wash and had mixed hair dye with the shampoo.

Leon narrowed his eye's at Abel and threw one of his shirts at him. Ester tensed ready to jump in if he should try to attack Abel. "That was a good prank," he admitted, "however I still need you to fix all my cloths you messed with."

Esther nudged Abel in the gut to get him to say something, "Uh- sorry?" Abel said.

"That's not how you say sorry," Ester and Asthe in unison said as Ion quoted, "sorry?" and chuckled to himself.

"I'm sorry Leon, I just couldn't help myself," Abel apologized. 'Seth helped me by the way. So you might want to scold her too,' he added silently.

**A/N:** Sorry for the long wait. Third trimester is killing me, I had like 3 research papers due and a lot of tests. I swear, my teachers are doing this on purpose. Jeez, I mean we just started last week. I haven't had math in about a year! It's so hard remembering stuff.

This wasn't what I had planed, the story just ended up writing itself. You can kind of tell because I didn't talk about what happened during the dinner with Caterina like I had planned to. So in future chapters I might say something about what happened during the dinner to catch you guys up a bit with what my brain has planned (actually I think it's my fingers that's controlling the story right now) I'm always mad at Leon so I had to make him the victim. My friends and I are talking about what to do for April fools so yeah... you can guess what happened next. Okay now I need to go to sleep. G'night.

reviews are appreciated.


	25. Chapter 25

Everyone in sat at the table as they continued to finish their meals that Abel had 'conveniently' interrupted. Leon was still a bit sour about the whole incident but over all he was taking it a whole lot better then Abel thought he would. He still had a slight green tint to his skin and his hair had wisps of yellow in it.

"Why did you do that to Leon?" Esther questioned, breaking the silence. Everyone looked up at her voice. Apparently they were all wondering the same thing. Even Seth wanted to know, she hadn't asked 'why' he did it, she only helped because it sounded fun.

Abel ignored her and drank the last gulp of water that was in his cup. He stood up collecting his plates and headed for the kitchen. Everyone watched him leave then looked back at Ester.

"Don't feel to bad about it," Ion reassured her when she made an offended looking face. "He's different then the Abel we know," he said, "it's almost like he has is own little world," he joked.

"I heard that!" Abel called. "You really shouldn't be talking about people behind their backs!"

Ion looked at Ester and gave her a reassuring smile that said, 'see? What did I tell you.'

A few minutes later Abel came out of the kitchen. Apparently he was done washing his plates and was wiping his wet hands on his shirt before sticking them in his pocket. "What?" he asked when everyone stared at him. Abel stared back with an innocent face as if he didn't know what they were thinking. "Okay, you guys are starting to creep me out," he commented as he shook his head and headed over to a couch that was farther away; his book was also there. He could feel everyone's eyes on him as he walked away.

"I never would have thought Four eyes could do something like a prank before," Leon snorted. "The guy was just to much of an idiot. If this Shrimp really is Four eyes I'll get back at him once he becomes the klutzy priest we all know and love."

Ester frown at this, she didn't like the idea of Father Nightroad being bullied. In fact if she didn't know better she'd say Abel was getting back at Leon for all those times Leon had hit Abel. Ester shook her head, that was impossible, this kid had lost his memories. She heard Abel chuckle she looked up to see him smiling as he read his book. Seth was sitting next to him drinking tea. It was almost like the two of them had known each other for a long time. "It's nice to see different emotions from him," she commented.

"I'll say," Asthe agreed with her. "He's much more reliable then how he used to be, though… sometimes I fe-"

"He also knows how to read dead languages," Ion broke in.

"Dead languages?" Ester and Leon questioned at the same time.

"Yup," Ion confirmed. "Apparently he can read some language called Scottish, and- and Gerpan? Germ? I don't know, its germ- something," Ion shook his head. "He was reading a few books in different languages, who knows he might know more then just two. He could have even majored in dead languages before he became a priest."

"Yeah right," Asthe said. "I've never heard of any school that teaches dead languages, and I'm sure that if the empire doesn't have such a class then neither should the outside world." Ion shrugged in response, and began to look at Abel and the empress. "Don't you think Seth and Abel are getting along really well?" Asthe said, the exact same thing Ion was thinking about.

"I do find that weird," Ion commented.

"Me too," Ester agreed as Leon shook his head. He didn't know who Seth was but they seemed to make a nice couple to him.

"They make a nice couple," Leon said and got a book in the face for his comment.

Abel was standing up and glaring darts into Leon. 'How could he ever think that I would actually go out with my own sister! He's such an idiot,' Abel thought.

Leon stumbled back a few paces, "What was that for, Shrimp?" he yelled.

"I don't know. You tell me," Abel replied, as he crossed his arms.

"Tch, fine why don't you tell us what you think about everyone in this room?" Leon challenged. "Then I won't ever say something like that again."

Abel gave Leon a questioning look that said, 'are you serious,' when Leon said nothing more Abel glanced at everyone around the room. "You, are an old man that's a complete idiot and prank worthy. You hate loosing and always bully those that are weaker then you to make yourself feel stronger. You wear those silver rings not only because they are weapons but also because you think it's cool and it makes you more attractive to the women." Abel said as Leon got madder and madder with each word that he said. He almost looked like the Hulks long lost brother. To bad Leon wouldn't know about the Hulk since he was ancient super hero, otherwise Abel would have also mentioned something about him as well. "I would say more on what I think about everyone else but I'm getting tired of talking to you. I just want to read my book," he ended as he plopped back down into the couch and opened up another book that he had brought from the empire.

"Don't you think that was going a bit to far?" Seth questioned as she looked at her brother. Abel rolled his eye's in response.

"Father, calm down," Ester ordered Leon. "Abel, that was uncalled for. I demand an apology." As she said this Leon broke out of her grip and advanced toward Abel. She gasped when he was only a few feet away from him. Leon gripped Abel by the collar of his shirt and lifted the smaller boy off the couch so he at eye level with him. The two looked into each others eyes before Leon chucked Abel a few feet away and into a wall.

"What's going on here!" Kate roared as she teleported only a few feet from where Leon stood. "You need to be more careful! What would have happened if you threw him at the control panel?" she was more concerned about the iron maiden then with Abel.

Abel stood up a few seconds later to see kate telling Leon off as the man made his way to Abel. 'Well I suppose I deserve this,' he thought.

"Wait!" Asthe jumped in between Abel and Leon. "I would love to beat him up as well. I used to always hit him whenever he did or said something stupid but don't you think it would be more worth while to get back at him once he got his memories back?" Asthe asked. Oh, just great. Now Abel would be getting hit by both Leon and Asthe once they found out he got his memories. Once he did he wouldn't be able to get back at any of them. Abel cursed silently he wasn't looking forward to getting his body back at the moment.

Leon took no notice to Asthe and walked past her. Ester held her breath. Seth watched, amused by the whole scene. If her brother wanted he could have killed Leon seconds ago. Abel sighed and scratched his head as his blue eyes locked on Leon's grey ones.

**A/N:** Reviews are appreciated.


	26. Chapter 26

Just a few feet away from Abel, Leon glared down at the boy. Abel could tell he was pissed, big time. Everyone was holding their breaths, waiting for a fight to break out. A few seemed worried, some could care less and one wanted nothing more then to see what would happen as she silently urged the fight to start. Abel stood up. His eyes locked on Leon, waiting for him to make the first move. His muscles tensed.

Long moments passed by in silence. Then suddenly- _thud_. Leon delivered an upper punch to Abel's jaw. Everyone in the room gasped.

The metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth as he felt his fangs easily pierce through his tongue. Not even a minute passed before Abel felt himself being slammed into the wall. Leon had a hand on Abel's neck to keep him pressed against the wall as Leon tried to choke him. Abel gasped and opened his mouth, drawing his fang out of his tongue as he did so. He gently pressed his tongue against the inside of his mouth, it was already beginning to feel numb. Abel looked straight into Leon's eyes as the man started to tighten his grip on Abel neck. His wind pipe was being crushed but he could hold his breath for a little over five minutes so he would be fine for now. Leon was drawing his arm back, to deliver another punch to Abel but before he could Abel threw his feet upward and kicked Leon right in the chin. The man doubled over in shock and released Abel. Abel took that chance to catch his breath and in one smooth movement he took hold of Leon's shirt and pushed the man into the wall, just as he had done to Abel; minus the choking part.

"Hey what's that?" Abel said as he pointed to Leon's chest with his free hand, he spoke in childish tones. Leon wasn't falling for it and continued to struggle out of Abel's grip. Abel dropped Leon and kept his gaze. "Lets just stop," Abel spoke, his voice once again serious. "We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves. The enemy is only a few days away, we should save our energy on them." He slowly turned away. Once his back was to Leon he could hear the swishing of wind and fabric as Leon made to kick Abel sideways.

The sound was off. The foot that remained flat on the ground has twisted strangely. If Abel didn't take the impact of the kick Leon would end up with a broken ankle. Abel grit his teeth, he would not only have to take the hit but would also have to move with it to cushion it.

These thoughts raced through his mind in a split second. A second later the leg came at Abel from his right side. Abel moved with the leg cushioning it just enough so that the other leg planted on the ground wouldn't twist any more.

"Wha-" Leon fell to the ground and held onto his leg as his fingers messaged the ankle. It was just sprained not broken. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

Abel would have helped him but decided not to, after all he was the one who wanted to continue with the fight. Not Abel. He glanced down at Leon before he turned and walk to the couch, to continue reading.

Whispering a little ways off was Ion and Asthe. They seemed to be talking about Abel and Leon. They seemed to be debating on whether to help Leon or not. Ester had a worried expression on her face as she looked at Leon then Abel and back again. She was probably confused and didn't know who to help. The kick had looked painful, but for some reason instead of Abel being hurt it was Leon. Seth was the on to take action. She inspected Leon's ankle and traced her finger along his leg and down to his toes.

"You just have a sprained ankle," Seth concluded. She rapped a thick bandage around his foot to prevent him from moving it. "You should keep off of it for a few days. It should be healed by the time we get to Berlin," Abel heard her say. 'Well,' Abel thought, 'at least Leon hadn't been injured more.'

He heard Asthe move to help Seth, as she supported Leon so that he could walk to a near by couch. Unfortunately the closest couch was the one Abel was on. As they neared, Abel could just make out sound of Leon's heart beat as it got faster. Leon was still mad. Abel sighed and put his book down, he might as well get this over with. "Sorry," he huffed. He hadn't meant to say it in such a rude way, but it still came out that way.

Leon snorted at his apology and plopped down onto the couch across from Abel. They both stared at each other, Leon gave Abel looks that could kill. At fist Abel gave an apologetic looking face but as time past his face moved into a more mad looking face that could match Leon's. It seemed like hours had passed even though it had only been a few minutes.

"Are they going to be okay?" Ester asked. She had edged her way to Seth, Asthe and Ion.

Shrugging Seth said, "they'll be fine."

"Yeah, I hardly doubt Abel will attack Leon now that he has an injury," Ion said then paused as he thought about what to say next. "I think he was going easy on Leon," he whispered and everyone looked at him. "When Abel first woke up with no memories he attacked everyone and I hate to say this but if it had been one on one he could have easily beat everyone," he looked at Asthe and she confirmed what he said by nodding her head. Ion continued, "infact if he hadn't shrunk I think he would have been able to take us all down within seconds, even if it wasn't one on one." As he said this he seemed upset at himself for being weaker then Abel who was 'supposed' to be a terran. He almost seemed ashamed.

"Heh, if that idiot ever gets his memories back I can guarantee that I'll be the first to put him back into place," Asthe promised.

Ester didn't like the idea of father Nightroad being beaten up, but didn't say anything. It seemed as though everyone here didn't like the new Abel. She glanced at him as he continued to shoot Leon death glares, and Leon countered them with his own. She found herself smiling, the old Abel would have cowered and begged Leon to stop. He also wouldn't have done all those horrible pranks to the man. Goodness, Leon's skin still had a slight green tint to them. She thought for a moment, even if everyone seemed to be upset at Abel, deep down they were really worried about him. After all they couldn't really blame him for loosing his memory, anyone who ad gone through the same thing would find that they are acting differently.

"In any case," Seth's voice snapped Ester back into the here and now, "lets play a board game and invite those two, to join us. It'll let them fight it out on the board," she smiled at everyone.

In the end everyone settle for a game of cards and invited Leon and Abel to join. Leon jumped right in at the invitation. Abel on the other hand seemed reluctant, but in the end he also joined. Seth had given him a weird look that said he had better listen or else.

They played a few games consisting of black jack, BS, and slap jack. Seth had also taught everyone how to play an ancient card game call egyptian war. Each time Leon lost he would always begin to pout and would blame Abel and say he had cheated. This of course wasn't true, Abel hadn't used any slight of hand and had won all the games fairly. Ever since he caught Ion cheating no one else had dared cheat with him around, well, except for Seth; but he let her get away with it.

"Hell!" Leon shouted. Abel had just slapped another double before anyone else could. "The card's are closer to you, so you're able to get to them faster," Leon complained, as he moved the pile of cards farther away from Abel and closer to himself. Abel through a card down, then Seth, Ion, Ester and Asthe. She had thrown a Queen down. Leon grunted and threw two of his top cards down it was a double, he realized this a second to late. Abel's hand came racing to the table and slapped the pile, followed by everyone else's. He had been the first to slap so Abel had gotten the cards. "That's cheating!" Leon roared and glared at Abel, "you saw my card before I got to put it down!"

Abel rolled his eye's and smirked, "you're just to slow. Or are you just scared of getting slapped, slow poke," he teased. He was slowly beginning to fall back on that klutzy priest act. Stupid habits! He hit himself mentally. "Ow," he rubbed his head and looked across the table to where the hand had come from. He hadn't expected to be hit in real life. It was Asthe.

"Oh, sorry my hand just slipped," Asthe said. Yeah right! She just wanted to hit him. They had a whole table between them for crying out loud. "Besides you need to respect your elders."

"What?" Abel looked at her confused.

"I might only be a year or two older then you but he's not," She jabbed her thumb at the man sitting next to her. "He's a good ten years older then you are," she explained. Why did she still remember that argument they had the week before?

"What ever," Abel said in gruff voice. He didn't really care. "Ow," he yelped again. "What was that for!" This time he looked at Ester.

"No, that's not how you're supposed to speak, _young man_," Ester chided and everyone chuckled. "You're supposed to say, yes. Now say yes." No one had expected her to say anything.

"What in the world is wrong with you people," Abel demanded. Whack, someone else hit him, this time in the gut. He looked up and was met by emerald eyes. Oh just great, Seth had jumped on the bare wagon.

"You were supposed to say yes," she scolded. Abel scowled and said nothing, instead he whipped out another card and threw it on the table.

"Hey," Ion punched Abel in the arm. "Don't ignore Seth," he put down his own card and smiled at Abel. Everyone was having fun and Abel's expense.

Abel rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "I hope we land soon," he mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"We won't be landing until I beat you at a game, Shrimp!" Leon announced. He seemed to have forgotten about everything Abel had done. Abel sighed and gave in. He might as well just lose already so that Leon would leave him alone.

"I don't think anyone can beat him," Asthe said as Ester threw a card down. "He hasn't lost in a single game, that he hasn't lost to on purpose. Lets all team up to beat him," she suggested.

"You do realize I'm right here right?" Abel asked and slapped a sandwich. He placed another card on the table the only other person who still had cards was his sister though she only had two. A few seconds passed and he unnoticed that he won in a bored voice.

"Okay," Ester spoke as she collected the cards from Abel and handed them to Ion who shuffled the deck. "We came up with a new game. Lets try playing it," Ester said. The next few minutes consisted of Ester explaining the new game, followed by Asthe who explained the gaps that Ester forgot. Ion then dealt the cards. It seemed as though everyone was going to try to beat Abel in this game and would work together even if it meant someone had to be used as a sacrifice.

Midway through their game Kate shimmered into view, "we will be landing in four hours," she announced.

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><p><strong>AN:** I have discovered the mysterious forces of the lines, like the one you see above. Thanks Flame.

I just remembered that I might not be able to update next week. I'm going on vacation for spring break and I don't think the hotel I'm going to has Wi-fi. Lets pray that there is.

Please review if you're reading this story. Reviews really help to motivate me and I always read it even if it don't comment on them.


	27. Chapter 27 defying gravity

Everyone filed out of the ship. Leon was the first to step out and was now stretching his arm over his head. The greenish tint on his skin was now gone, as he had taken a bath before they landed. His leg on the other hand was still sore. Seth had said it would be like for two days at the minimum if he was lucky and kept off it. Leon of course could care less and stood on his injured leg without a second thought. He was limping pretty badly.

Yawning, Abel put his hand over his mouth. Geez, everyone had been making up their own card games for the past hour, to try and beat him. He had won each one, except the game his sister had made. She kept on adding rules in the middle of the game, it was so complicated that no one except for her had really understood it. In fact Abel had a feeling she was just making it up as the game progressed. Since they had all been playing card games they didn't have time to discuss any plans and were going out into the field blindly. This wasn't going to be fun.

As soon as everyone got out of the ship, Kate had closed the hatch and took off into the air again. She needed to find a port to park the Iron Maiden in. That was just great. They were all in the middle of the city, and didn't even know where to start. Abel sighed as he looked at each of his friends. None of them seemed to understand the situation. They merely took in the sights, like the tourists they were.

"Shouldn't we start looking for the Orden?" Abel asked, finally speaking up. He wanted t get this over with. Hopefully they would be able to thwart the Ordens plans; what ever that was, and destroy their hideouts. While they worked on that they would also be keeping an eye out for Isaac as he was the one who had drugged Abel, and made him shrink. He really missed his old body. Not to mention his fangs where still showing. It hadn't shrunk at all. Abel was surprised no one had seen it when he opened his mouth to draw his fang out of his tongue. At least he could be happy he was healing normally again. His tongue was fully healed. "Maybe splitting up would be the best idea," Abel added as he followed behind the others who where looking into shop windows.

"Cool it Shrimp," Leon grinned as he placed his hand on Abel's head and began to ruffle his already messy hair. "You sound just like a grandpa, you big worry wart," he added as Abel ruffly pushed his hand away. "We'll get to it in time, but for now just relax and have fun."

"Yeah, but-"

"Don't worry we'll start searching for the Order as we look at all the sights," Seth said. Se was running from one window to the next. Abel turned to Ion and Asthe for help, but the two just shrugged. They didn't want to go against the Empress' wishes. Abel snorted in response. He would have turned to Ester but she was also having fun as she looked into the bottom of a water fountain, where are the coins glittered in the sun.

A good hour passed before Seth said, "let's go into this one next." It felt like the hundredth time that she said that as everyone walked into the store. The first store that the girls had walked into the men all decided to stay out but the girls had managed to convince them all to walk in. It was mostly Ester who had done the convincing for both Leon and Ion. Abel on the other hand didn't walk into any stores yet and so like all the others he would be waiting out side this one. No doubt everyone would try to get him to come in like they had for all the others.

"Get in here," Asthe ordered.

"We need to finish our mission," Abel said blandly. He had his eyes pealed on the street and scanned each person who walked past him, to make sure they weren't part of the Orden.

"He doesn't want to come in again!" Asthe yelled over her shoulder as she retreated back into the store.

Abel zoned her out and continued to watch the people that passed by. His eye's darted from person to person. Wait. What was that? Abel glanced back to the person he had just looked over. No, no, no. The person was gone. He could have sworn he saw someone with strings attached to them. Abel's eye's darted over everyone in the area in a frantic motion. He zeroed in on a small group of kids walking toward him. They were chatting loudly. Abel focused on the girl in the front.

Why did it have to be Eris? Dang, it looked like even Peter and Wendy were with her. Good thing they didn't notice him. Well granted he looked like a kid, yeah that's right they wouldn't recognize him, not like this at least. 1 step, 2, steps, 3 steps. The small group slowly passed him, and he let out a small breath in relief. His breath caught in his throat. He saw a flash of a knife, a thug was following the unsuspecting children. Among the crowd Abel saw another glitter as the sun reflected off micro thin strings.

This was the worse timing ever. Without another thought Abel tackled the man with the knife and, snatched the weapon away. He caused quite a bit of commotion and everyone turned to him, and the person who was scrambling to get up.

"Help, this kid's trying to rob me!" yelped the thug. He wore dirty red jeans that had a rip on the right knee, and a black shirt. A brown hat sat on his sandy colored hair. "Help! Thief!" he yelled again.

"What! I'm not the thief!" Abel barked. "He is!" he pointed to man sitting on the floor. "He had that knife in his hand and was following a small group of kids!" This really wasn't the time for this. Abel's first lead would be getting away in all this commotion, but he couldn't have just let the children get harmed, even if one of them was the witch and the other a type of fairy of some sort.

A police officer holding a bat in one hand and hand cuffs in another approached Abel and the man. The children had turned and where now, staring at Abel wide eyed. The probably thought he was a Father look alike. Abel could also hear as his friends shuffled out of the store. They seemed to have also been attracted by the scene. He glanced to where the man had been standing, he was no longer there. His eye's went from face to face looking for the man or a glint string in the sun.

"Hey son, what where you doing," the police officer was only two feet away from Abel.

"That man had a knife in his hands and was following those children," Abel pointed to the kids. He didn't look at the officer at all and continued to frantically look for the other man.

"Look at me," the officer ordered. Abel reluctantly did so. "What's your name?"

"Abel," Asthe called. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?" All of his friends where now by him.

Quickly he explained, "he was stalking those kids, and I stopped him!" It felt like he had been saying this for at least a hundred times. He then whispered, "I saw a man with strings attached him," only a Methuselah or a Crusnik could have heard him.

Asthe's eye's widened when she heard this, she could hear Seth and Ion shift to tell the two terrans about what Abel had just said. 'I am so going to regret this,' she thought. "I'm sorry for the trouble that my… nephew has caused you," she said as she took Abel's hand, "But he's a very serious and kind hearted child, I'm sure he saw what he said he saw, even if he went about solving it in the wrong way," she glanced at the clock tower. "If you would excuse us we really must get going," she said as she practically dragged Abel away.

Once out of ear shot Asthe asked, "which way did he go?"

"I don't know!" Abel barked. "That man was distracting me," that idiot. He kept this last part to himself.

"Are you sure you actually saw any strings?" Ion asked. 'As far as I know only the Empress can see the strings, not even a methuselah can. Well at least no Asthe and I.' he thought.

Abel ignored his question. "Did you see any thing?" he asked Seth. The methuselah Empress shook her head, she was concentrating on looking into every nook and cranny for any signs of string. Abel was also doing the same.

"Hold it," Leon pulled on Abel's hair causing him to lean back.

Abel's eyes widened. Right there, on the side of the building a person stood walking as if gravity had no affect on him. "Wha-" Abel stared at the figure he was walking side ways close to the roof of the three story building. It didn't look like the person he had seen early as this person was bigger but he still strings attached to him, and that almost dead look in his eye's as he was being controlled like a puppet.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Please review, it really helps to motivate me.


	28. Chapter 28 Abel Wanna Be

"Hey Shrimp, what the hell are you guys talking 'bout?" Leon asked as he glared down at Abel. His nose only an inch away from Abel's face. "Is this another one of your pranks?" He pulled on Abel's hair a bit more, causing him to lean back even farther. His back cracked.

This really wasn't the time for this. Abel had already lost one person and now he was about to loose another. He jerked his head up, ignoring the tug on his hair. His head knocked into Leon's face causing the gruff looking man to release his hair and clutch his nose. Abel spun around searching above him for the chubby looking man.

"No, this isn't a prank," he growled under his breath. He had locked eye's with the figure above him. 'Just great, how the heck will I get up there?' he thought, 'terrans and their horrible reflexes, gah, why the hell do I even need to act like one!' louder he said, "look up there! That man has strings attached to him!" Abel pointed to the man as he said this.

Abel could feel everyone eye's slowly follow his finger to the place it was pointing to. Time seemed to come to a stand still. He could hear Ester and Leon gasp, when they saw the man practically walking on air. The sound of tapping feet, that signaled a methuselah entering haste didn't seem at all as fast as it should have been.

Then wind whipped past Abel as Asthe and Ion both charged at the man. Ion held two twin blades while Asthe came at the man with only her fists, to lazy to activate her spear.

Ion was the fist to attack the man. He slashed at the man then delivered a quick kick to the man's side. Unfortunately both attacks missed, or at least the man didn't seem to be affected by it at all. Then Asthe lept at the man and together she and Ion both tried to attack him. Ion threw one of his knives as Asthe sent a flying jump kick to the man's head. Both missed again, Asthe landed at the foot of the building just next to Ion. Everyone was glaring up at the man.

'Damn it all!' Abel thought, he was frustrated to no end. Why couldn't they hit them? He reached for his gun, but his hand only closed on air. Gah, he had left his gun in the Iron Maiden because he didn't really need it.

Where the hell was Tres when you need him? Seth looked as though she wanted to join in, but Abel knew she wouldn't. It was to much of a risk for a number of reasons. Abel knew she carried knives but that would mean asking her, after all he couldn't just go over there and snatch it away from her. She was the empress and Ion and Asthe would have his head if he did that.

Leon was staring at everyone with wide eyes and his mouth open, as if he couldn't believe that there was a man who was standing on the side of the wall. Abel glanced at the rings around the man wrists. That wouldn't work, he didn't even know how to throw those rings. Okay, he did but they weren't his favorite weapon.

Abel looked to Ester, she seemed to be thinking about how she could help. Abel scanned her up and down, damn, no weapons. Wait, his eye's fell on her skirt. Ester always had a weapon on her, she was never careless enough to leave her room without one, even when she was only going to dinner. Gah, why did girls always need to hide their weapons up their skirts? What happened to good old fashion pocket? Or hoisters? He hadn't read any signs that said hoisters where only for men!

'What should I do?' Abel bit his lip, drawing a little blood. He quickly glanced back to the man. Apparently he, Ion and Asthe were at a standstill and where only staring at each other waiting for an opening. Ion, was growing impatient and rose to the tip of his toes before leaping up at the man who was at least 40 feet in the air. Asthe was right behind him as her spear was slowly activating in her right hand. Ion was finally able to land a hit on the man, however as he landed he was blocking Asthe's line of vision. Abel's eye's widened. 'Of all the- I'm so gonna- Stupid, stupid, stupid!' Abel kept repeating this to himself as he quickly dove to where Ester was and reached under her long skirt for her gun.

Ester seemed to shocked by what Abel did to even say anything. Though even if she did Abel wouldn't have paid any attention to her. His eye's were locked on Asthe. The man's hand, had shaped into a sharp knife it now pierced through Asthe's side. Abel had been to slow. He pulled the trigger- bang. Asthe fell to the ground, and Leon seeming to snap out of it, caught her just before she could strike the ground. Thud- just as Leon caught Asthe the figure fell to the ground, thanks to Abel's bullet.

The gash on Asthe's stomach would heal within the next minute or so. It was't a wound caused by silver plus it hadn't been inflicted in her heart or head so she would be fine. Abel looked at the chubby man who was now laying on the ground. Suspicion clawed at his mind. That had been to easy. Usually a puppet would be able to take any amount of damage done to it, this seemed to be planned. Abel cautiously approached the man, he wasn't really scared but needed to act as such because of everyone around him. Esther's gun was held out in front of him, one finger on the trigger. Abel kicked the man, but didn't get any reaction. He seemed to be carrying a paper in his hand.

Abel tugged the paper out of the man's hand, careful not to rip it. The first word's on it was, 'Dear, 02.' The paper crumbled in Abel's hand, he would read it later.

Mean While:

"That kid looks just like the priest who saved me a few years ago," Eris said to her companions as they all stared at the strange group of people only a few yards away from them.

"Really? Would that priest happen to be Father Nightroad?" Wendy asked, Eris nodded her head. "

"I recognize Mr. Leon," Peter piped up. He and Wendy had just met Eris a few days ago. Apparently she was running away from the Vatican because they were doing tests on her since she was a witch, as they called it. Both girls glared at him. Ever since Eris had come into his life she and Wendy where always bitting his head off about something or another. He looked away from them and back to the small group. The Abel wanna be was now reading something that he had picked up from that strange man.

"Hey," Leon's gruff voice traveled to Peter, the older man was approaching the Abel wanna be, who had crumbled the paper in one hand. He picked up the boy by the back of shirt. The silver head was now a good foot, off the ground. "You should never treat a Lady like that, Shrimp! You know-" Peter couldn't hear the rest of what he was saying, it seemed like he really wanted to hit the boy.

"We should-"

"Shhhhh-" Peter hissed, cutting off what Eris was saying. Both she and Wendy opened their mouth in protest but snapped it shut when they realized he was trying to hear what the other people where saying.

The crowd that had gathered from when Abel had stopped the thug had now moved to surround the group, and the man who had been walking on the wall. The thug now forgotten to everyone, had slipped away.

A nun with red hair had approached the man with lion like hair and the silver head, "That … you… ever…" she said, Peter could just barely make out what she was saying over the voice of the crowd. "What… you holding?" she asked. She was trying to pry open the boys clenched hand. When the Abel wanna be didn't open his hand Leon growled something, Peter couldn't hear and slammed the boy into the ground. In one fluid motion he swung his foot over the boy and sat down on the kid's back. His hand had a grip on the boys neck to force his head down.

'That was so, cool!' Peter thought. Ever since he had met Leon he had always thought of him as a role model of some sorts or a hero. He always wanted to be like him.

The gun the boy was holding had slid across the gravel, but the boy wouldn't let go of the paper. What was so important about it anyway?

"Let go of the paper!" Leon snarled, his face was only inches away from the others ear. He pushed down harder on the boys neck as his other hand reached for the note. By now the others in their group had gotten closer to those two and where asking questions.

The lady, who got stabbed was clutching her side and staring down at the boy and Leon. "What… you… now?" she asked, her voice was hoarse.

"I saw what you did!" the blond haired boy said as he glared down at the silver haired boy. Now that Peter thought about it both the blond haired boy and the lady who had a streak of red through her blond hair must have been methuselah. No ordinary person would be able to jump that high or be able to stand after being stabbed. He also spotted a medallion that they both wore o protect them from the sun, and if he looked closer he could see a shiny hint of color on their skin from what should have been lotion.

The boy on the ground tried shaking off the buff man, but wasn't strong enough. Peter could see his lips moving to form words but heard nothing from where he stood.

Tap, tap. Peter turned his attention to Wendy, Eris was right behind of her. He gave her questioning look, this had better be good. "Let's go in closer," she whispered to him. He nodded his head and followed.

The small crowd had begun to grow even bigger then it was before and s moving even closer didn't seem to help at all. Though, if he had stayed where he was he doubted he would be able to hear anything now.

"I can't hear anything," Eris grumbled, "what are they even talking about?"

XXX

"Give me the damn, paper!" Leon ordered. "It's not like its a love letter!"

"Get off me!" Abel yelled back as he tried to push himself up with his free hand. In this position he couldn't really move at all.

"Just give him the paper already!" Asthe growled. Abel could tell she was in no mood to be playing games since she had been stabbed. She was probably thirsty for blood right now, and was restraining herself from attacking Leon or Abel.

"Paper?" Ion asked, "I thought you were scolding him because he put his hand under Ester skirt?" he looked at Leon, anger towards Abel was etched all over his face. His voice was laced with venom as he said this.

"Let me go!"

A warm hand touched his hand that was gripping the paper. Abel tried turning his head but Leon forced him back down ruffly. "Well, that's part of the reason why, but, he's also holding a paper, and it seems like he doesn't want anyone to read it." Leon said, his grip tightening around his wrist, it was beginning to fall asleep.

"Let go of the paper," Ester's voice came from the direction of the hand. Abel shivered, if had been her he would be way more mad. Why din't she seem at least a little mad? It just didn't make sense. He struggled some more. Leon's grip was tight around his wrist while Esters hand was on his and her thumb kept running over what little paper was sticking out of his fist. Where the heck was Seth? Why wasn't she helping him?

Abel tightened his grip, however with his hand now sleeping he couldn't exactly tell how tight his grip was. Asthe sat down in front of him on the ground and crossed her legs. He soon found a finger in his face, "You little, Brat!" Asthe began, "I can't believe you actually went up Ester's skirt!" she screamed. Ashte began to yell at him even more causing his ears to ring, but he was more concerned about the paper.

If they read it and his brother had put something in it about the Nightlords, he was sure he wouldn't be able to get his way out of it. Plus, his brother would most likely write his name on it at least once so even is he didn't add Nightlord every one would still wonder why the Contra Mondi was sending him messages.

His grip was faltering, he could no longer feel Esters thumb stroking his hand. Abel tried tugging his hand away. Was it just him or where there now two hands on his arm? From his elbow down all he could feel was a thousand needles poking him. His whole arm was numb.

"Was that so hard?" Leon asked. What? Was what so hard? Asthe had stopped yelling at him and was now looking at the person in the back of him, it was probably Ester.

"Dear 02," Ester began, and Abel began to struggle more. Leon probably didn't even realize that he was holding Abel in a position where he couldn't really move because it required muscles that hardly anyone ever uses. It was pure luck.

"Who's 02?" Leon questioned he took no notice to Abel.

"Let me up!" Abel yelled. "You got the paper!"

"Yeah," Ion said from somewhere behind Abel, "We'll let you up and then you'll snatch the paper away." Abel could just imagine the smirk on Ion's face.

"Let him up." Finally, someone was on his side. Of course it was his sister. Where the heck had she been anyway? "We can read it when we get back to the ship. We're attracting a crowd here and I don't think we want to warn the Orden that we are here more then we already have."

Abel let out a breath and relaxed his muscles. A few seconds later the grip on his wrist and neck eased off, and then the pressure on his back as Leon got up. "Thanks," he mumbled, as he slowly got up, he was half expecting Leon or someone else to knock him over. He glanced at Ester then looked down at his feet, " sorry. I needed a weapon because I forgot mine in the ship."

"Its fine, I understand," Ester said, she wasn't looking at him and had turned her back and was walking away.

"May I see that note?" Seth asked holding her hand out to Esther. She seemed surprised but in the end she nodded and handed her the paper. A few moments passed before Seth nodded and pocketed the note. "We can discuss this later," she said. Ester seemed to want the paper back but said nothing, about it and soon the two were engaged in a friendly chatter.

XXX

"I can't see anything!" Eris complaining, as she shoved Peter to get a better look. She snorted, "I can't even hear what they're saying. Lets just go already."

"She's right Peter," Wendy said as she put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "We aren't getting anything out of this, and we need to find a place to sleep."

Peter paid no attention to them. He was intent on following Leon no matter what and that Abel wanna be just made him even more interested. He wondered if the boy was Abel's relative or something.

Leon had finally let the boy up, and he stood to dust himself up. He looked mad, but when he looked at the red haired girl he had a look of guilt on his face and lowered his head. He mumbled something that Peter couldn't hear. Then the red head and a younger looking girl began to walk together with the other's following them. The red head had passed the other girl a note.

Looking over his shoulder Peter suggested, "Lets follow them." The girls gave him a weird look. "We can sleep near where they are staying, plus it will let us discover who that silver haired boy is," he said looking at the girls he knew they were also interested in that boy. Without another word he slipped through the crowd and into the opening, following the group of six on silent feet. He could hear the slight hesitation of the girls behind him before they caught up with him.

"I wonder if we'll get to see father Nightroad," Eris said happily.

'I hope I get to talk to the mister again,' Peter hoped.

"Maybe that boy is his relative or something," Eris said, "or maybe his kid." Peter could have sworn he saw the silver haired boy pause for a fraction of a minute and snort when Eris said this. Strange. He slowed his steps a bit to put more distance between himself and the group, he grabbed the girls hand as he did so.

"What?" Wendy asked.

"I don't want to get caught," Peter whispered.

XXX

Abel snorted. 'Maybe Father Nightroad has a kid,' he smiled at the thought. 'How old do I look? I'm supposed to be in my early twenties and I right now I look like I'm eleven. If I really was my own kid then that would have meant that my dad is only 10 years older then me.' Abel withheld the temptation to laugh, 'then again I'm really 975 years old. But still they don't know that.' His smile faded. 'Why the hell are they even following us?' he looked in the window of one of the stores and saw his reflection as well as three kids about ten to 15 feet away.

Shaking his head he continued to follow the others. He had been in a foul mood ever since Leon had sat on him and still was but what those kids had said had brightened him up. The fact that Seth had the note also relaxed him to a certain point. He didn't want his sister to read it but it was safer then having the others look at it.

His mind drifted off, consumed into all his thoughts he hadn't even realized they were already in the Iron Maiden until Leon ordered Kate to bring everyone tea. She chided him for ordering him round but in the end she sighed and a few seconds later mechanical arms brought the tea in. Abel looked back at the hatch which was now closed. It didn't seem like the kids had followed them in. Sighing he took a seat as far away from Ester and Leon as he could get. In all truth it wasn't very far.

"Hey kid," Leon began he was referring to Seth, the two Methuselah seemed like they wanted to snap at him for calling their empress by such a term but thought better of it. "When are you gonna tell us what that note says," he asked, was had an arm swung over the back of the chair.

Taking out a paper from her pocket she read it. Or, at least it looked like she was reading it. When she was done scanning over it she said, "It's nothing important, its just a journal of some sort," at everyone's weird look she explained, "Abel's writing journal entries so that he won't forget anything again." She shot Abel a look.

'Really? Where the hell did she come up with that! Like I would ever write in a journal! It's a pure waste of time. That was the worst excuse ever! Ester saw the handwriting on that note. She knows it's not mine,' Abel cursed his sister. Everyone looked at Abel with faces of pure shock and some sympathy. "What? I don't want to forget anything again!" he mumbled.

"Haha, now that's more like the Four- Eye's I know," Leon announced. "He always did do worthless things that had no meaning to them," he gave Abel a wolfish grin.

"Can I have it back now?" Abel asked. Seth walked to him and placed the folded note into his open hand. "Thank you," he said, and turned around from everyone and left the room, retreating to his own.

Once sure no one had followed him, Abel locked the door and sat on his bed. "Dear 02," he read. "I want you to join me. Together we can rule the world together, once more can the Nightlords rule," So he had been right, his brother did mention the Nightlords. "Of course I realize that you don't want to, so instead...

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't think it would take me this long to update. I was busy with my trip and didn't have any time to write anything. Plus even if I wanted to I don't think I could have since the internet was supper slow. Anyone want to guess where I went?

Anyway on the plane ride back home I was thinking about my dog and somehow it moved on to what I want to happen in another story... What do you guys think about a Trinity blood cross over with a lot of other anime and movies? It won't be like 5 other anime and trinity blood at one time just one at a time. I'm currently thinking about making the crossover the sequel of this story. If your guys don't want a crossover then I'll just stick to my original plan. Oh and I still plan on using part of my original thoughts if the crossover is chosen.

It's times like these when I would really like to know how to start a poll.

I'm reliving sunday! I lived through sunday on my trip and now that I'm back home I'm reliving it all over again! It's like I went back in time.


	29. Chapter 29 That idiot brother

Knock, knock, knock. Abel looked up at his door, waiting for someone to come in but nobody did, instead a voice came through. "Abel, open the door, we need to talk," it was Seth. He had forgotten that he had locked the door, and had apparently fallen asleep after reading the note.

"Coming," he called back. A few seconds later he opened the door and without even being asked Seth walked in, and she took large strides to his bed. She sat down, looking at him expectantly. She wanted him to speak up first. "Yes?" Abel decided to play dumb and took a seat on the chair by his bed. Seth gave him a stern look, and he returned it with a confused one of his own. "You know if you continue talking to me, and coming to visit me people will get the wrong idea right?" he asked.

Seth rolled her eye's, "stop trying to change the topic."

"What topic is that?" Abel asked.

His sister rolled her eye's again. "You know what I'm talking about, don't act like you don't… What are you going to do about that letter?" She asked, "it could be a trap."

"It's the only lead we have. If it gets me closer to killing Cain, I'll take it," he growled his brothers name.

"Think Abel," Seth ordered, her voice was raising to the point where it was almost a scream. "Cain wants your body because he can't maintain his form for much longer. This game could just be a goose chase! He won't be so stupid as to-"

"I don't care," Abel pushed himself away from the table and stood up, causing the chair to clatter to the ground. "I'll find him by myself," he snapped, "I don't want to involve anyone else," this last part was almost a whisper, even Seth could barely make out the words.

"Wait Abel I'll come with you," Seth also stood up. Abel's expression changed from anger to a mixture of confusion and worry. "What? Someone needs to keep an eye on you."

"You should stay here Seth. What would happen if you got hurt? You are the empress after all."

"Well, the way I see it you should be staying here because Cain's after you not me," She stated. "Plus the crusnik is acting up. Your fangs are still showing," Seth snorted. "In the state you're in you wouldn't stand a chance against Cain. Have you even tried activating the crusnik yet?" Abel didn't answer. "I thought so. Oh and you can't say anything about me being the empress because you are technically the Emperor. Come on lets go." She added quickly before he could say anything.

Meanwhile:

Peter kept watch as the girls slept. It had been nearly six hours since they had stowed away on the same ship, that the AX had entered. Upon entering Peter had ushered the girls into the first room he saw. Apparently it was a storage room. Peter closed his eye's then opened them again. No. He couldn't go sleep yet, he need to make sure no one found them.

The sound of someone walking down the hall alerted him, and he didn't feel tired anymore. His muscles tensed, ready to spring into action and wake the girls if some entered the room. Nothing happened and he felt himself relax again.

What was that? Peter looked toward the door. The sound of two people people walking echoed across the Hall.

"Hmm," Eris moaned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eye. "What was that?"

"Go back to sle-" Peter froze. I head of silver could be seen right outside the window, and it seemed to have stopped moving.

"Lets just hope everyone doesn't find that we disappeared until night," he mumbled to the black haired girl besides him.

"Was that Abel?" Eris asked, she was now completely awake.

"I'm going to follow him," Peter whispered, "make sure to watch Wendy for me."

"Wait," Eris grabbed his wrist. "You can't go, it's not safe!"

"Shh," Peter hissed.

Eris glared at him. "You can't go," she insisted, "you don't even know where they're going."

"Yeah, but-"

"That's not even the real Abel! He's a complete stranger, and not to mention the girl. Besides Wendy wouldn't be happy if you just left!" Eris hissed back at him.

"I'm going," Peter made a move for the door knob. But was stopped when Eris pulled on his hand again. He turned to her and the next thing he saw was two of her fingers reaching to his forehead. It was to close for him to dodge it. The cold fingers touched his forehead, and he soon found himself being washed over by a wave of tiredness.

"I'll go follow them-" Eris' voice followed him into sleep. He pitched into the darkness.

XXX

Dear 02,

I want you to join me. Together we can rule the world together, once more can the Nightlords rule. Of course I realize that you don't want to, so instead I've set up a little game for you to play. I you win, then you will get your normal body back and possibly save the Queen; if, you finish the corse in time. If you're interested then find my base, I won't tell you where it is, you need to find it yourself, I love seeing you scramble.

Oh, and if you decide not to play then you will spend the rest of your life as an eleven years old. Your condition becomes permanent after one to two years of having it.

Love, 01

XXX

'Gah, brothers can be so- I don't even want to think about it. That big jerk of an idiot!' Seth screamed in her thoughts. She had half a mind to tie him up and throw him in prison, in the empire. "Slow down would you," she called to him. "You have longer legs then I do!" She began to jog after him. "One would have thought that you would be slower now that you shrunk but, noooo, you still need to walk fast! Why are we even walking? We could cover more ground in haste."

"Because you should stop taking the easy way around things," Abel said calmly. "Besides we've only been walking for two hours."

"Are you trying to imply that I'm lazy?" Seth joked. "Well we know he has a base over here and another in Estonia," She said. She was needed to half jog, half walk to keep up with Abel. "At least we don't need to travel the world just to find the base."

They passed by several buildings until they came to a stop. "You noticed to, didn't you?" Seth asked and Abel nodded.

"I knew from some time, but I had hopped she would give up," Abel confessed.

"Do you know her?"

"Nope," he lied.

"Well then why would she be following us? It can't just be to thank you for saving her," Seth said and Abel shrugged. "What are we going to do? We can't just let her follow us, it's to dangerous."

"You didn't think I realized that?" Abel asked, taken aback by what she was implying.

"Well then lets run," Seth announced, and took off in haste. To a human it would seem like she disappeared.

"Wait, no, don't," Abel tried calling her back but she was already a few blocks away. 'I need to learn to not lie,' Abel thought. Eris was looking at the place where Seth had been seconds ago. Just great. Abel broke into a sprint, making sure that he didn't enter haste. He could hear Eris following him. Abel took a right into an ally way and jumped onto the roof of the building. He looked down and saw her run into the ally but noticed it only ended in a dead end so she turned around and began running down the main street again.

He watched her for a few seconds before taking off after Seth. He jumped from building to building.

"Why didn't you follow me?" Seth asked.

"I don't want anyone to think I'm a Methuselah," Abel said. "Anyway, lets go back to the place where we saw that puppet, we may find a clue."

**A/N:** Sorry it took me a day to write this, and it's super short. I kept on having to rewrite it because it didn't make sense, plus I would write three paragraphs and then do something else and forget what I was writing about. Curse you writers block!

Kite00 hope you get better soon! There's a good 5 to 10 chapters left in this book. Maybe more or less. Right now I'm thinking less, but yesterday I was thinking more, and the day before that I was thinking less, so I really don't know.

Please review, if you're reading this story.


	30. Chapter 30 Dreaming about stow aways

Not here, not there, and definitely not over there. Where in the world had Seth disappeared to? How many places where there to hide in this ship anyway?

Asthe walked down the hall yet another time, and like all the other times before she looked into the kitchen, Seth's room, her room, Abel's room and Ions room, and the main room. 'I've got to be missing something!' Twist, creak, slam. Twist, creak slam. Door knob, open, shut. Door knob, open shut.

She poked her head into Ions room. The count was sleeping on his bed with his back turned toward her. Like her own, this room consisted of a bed, desk, and closet. There was also a door connecting to his own bathroom.

"Pst," Asthe hissed, and shook Ion.

"Five more minutes, Grandmother…" Ion pulled the blanket over his face.

"Wake up!," Asthe hissed, louder this time, and pulled his blanket away.

Ion cracked open an eye and stared at the wall in front of him. He blinked a few times, then closed it again. "Wake up," Asthe ordered.

Groaning, he slowly turned to her and sat up, "I'm so tired can't this wait for later?"

"Seth is missing!" Asthe nearly screamed. "I looked everywhere I thought she would be."

There was an immediate reaction to those words. Ions eyes widened and he jumped off his bed heading out of his room. "You should have told me that sooner," he said in a hushed voice over his shoulder.

Asthe shook her head and followed Ion out of the room. The Earl was already making his way down the hall. Just like she did he looked into the rooms quietly however he went into all the rooms not just a few, like she had. Didn't he have any manors?

XXX

"Peter! Peter, are you okay?" Peter opened his eye's and was met by Wendy's worried look. "Oh, thank God you're okay!" she hugged him. "I was so worried because you didn't wake up and Eris is gone so I thought something had happened while I was sleeping."

"Eris?" Peter asked, his mind was still swimming from being woken up. Who was Eris, again? Then it clicked, "Er-Eris, she went to- she followed that kid that looked like Abel, and touched my forehead- I knocked out," he stuttered.

"Calm down Peter," Wendy soothed.

"Calm down!" Peter yelled and stood up. "Eris is out there at night following a kid she doesn't even know, and you want me to calm down?" Peter looked frantically to the door. He wanted to run after her. It had been his fault she had gone, if he hadn't said anything she would still be here. "What if a vampire attacks her, or she gets hurt? She's younger then us! She can't fend for herself like-"

The door creaked open, and light spilled into the room. Two figures charged into the room. The smaller of the two charged into Peter, while the other went for Wendy. Peter gasped from the sudden attack.

"Who are you?" the figure who was holding Peter down asked. Peter tried struggling but couldn't get away. He looked at Wendy, beads of sweat were visible on her face. Her eye's close. He knew she was trying to make her wings appear.

The person holding him, bent his hand. It hurt, but he said nothing. "Who are you?" the figure snarled. Pressure on his hand was letting up and it kept getting worst. His hand would snap it he said nothing.

"I- I'm Peter," he answered shakily.

"Why are you here?" the female asked. Peter recognized her as the lady who got stabbed. The vampire. She spoke with kindness but there was still a hint of anger in her voice.

"We-"

"What the hell," the female vampire shouted, and released Wendy.

Light yellow wings sprouted out of her back. They looked fragile like fairy wings but Peter knew this wasn't true. They were actually really strong and didn't tare like a butterfly wing would. The only way to actually rip it was with a gun or knife. He wasn't to sure if a vampire could break them though.

Wendy's wings began to flap, slowly at first then faster. It was moving so fast that they looked like blurs to him. She took flight, and charged into the vampire holding him down. Peter could feel the hand release him so that the person could dodge.

"What did you do to Seth?" the male vampire growled, as he drew out a silver dagger.

Wendy charged at him again, but the male easily dodged it. And slashed at her wing, causing her to crash into the wall.

"Hey, what's going on here?" a man with shaggy hair and silver bracelets walked into the room.

"Mister?" Peter questioned.

"Huh? Aw man I must be dreaming or something?" Leon grumbled. "I think I'm seeing things." He looked from Ion to Wendy. "Yup, I've got to be dreaming."

"What's going on here!" a blond haired lady appeared next to Peter. "Leon, if I find one thing in those boxes broken you will pay for it!" She turned to the man.

"What! But I didn't do anything wrong, I just got here!" Leon yelled back.

"Ouch," Wendy said, as she tried pushing her self up. One of her wings looked hurt and was bent in a strange way. She closed her eyes and a few seconds later they sunk into her back.

"Stow aways?" the blond lady looked at Wendy, and finally she seemed to look down to where Peter sat, staring at her wide eyed. The lady was see through!

"U-uh-u," Peter stuttered you couldn't seem to find his voice.

"We found them," the male vampire spoke up. "We were looking for Seth when, we found these two."

"I think it's those kids Abel saved," the female vampire said.

Abel? She had just said Abel, does that mean that silver haired boy really was Abel Nightroad? The clumsy priest? What happened to him?

"Can somebody please wake me up?" Leon grumbled. "I've had enough of the shrimp, and now I'm even dreaming of brats!"

"You're not dreaming," the ghost huffed.

XXX

The sun was beginning to rise but even so, Abel and Seth couldn't see it, they could only guess. The sky was grey, blanketed by storm clouds. They could thunder, and where certain that it was about to rain.

"Damn," Abel cursed.

"Aren't you supposed to be a priest?" Seth chided, "don't swear." She grinned to show she was joking.

"Haha, very funny," Abel grinned. "You can go back to the iron maiden, it's about to rain." He paused when she gave him a look that said 'I know what you're up to. "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you, I'm just going to be a little late. I want to make sure that girl is okay."

"Fine," Seth nodded, "but if you're not back within an hour I'll… do something to you," she gave him a smirk showing she wasn't kidding, then raced off, just as the first of rain began to pour down.

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks for all the review I got on the last chapter! Please continue reviewing, its fun reading everyone comments.

I'm currently leaning toward no crossover, but I'm going to keep the poll up until I start the sequel. Um, there might actually be two sequels, I'm not to sure yet though, I'll need to start the second one before I decide.

Fountainofroses: You'll just have to wait and see if someone finally finds out about Abel. *cough*, Ester, *cough* might *cough* Ugh, my throat hurts...


	31. Chapter 31

"Have any of you seen Father Nightroad? I need to ask him something," everyone looked to the red haired girl as she entered the main room.

Peter and Wendy were seated next to Leon, Asthe and Ion were across the table from them. Ion kept giving them dirty looks while Asthe didn't seem to care. Kate on the other hand was awfully mad and kept asking the same question. "Why did you follow us?" or "Why did you follow Abel?" Peter was glad someone else came into the room, he felt as though his brain was replaying the same question over and over again like a broken track record.

"Oh hello. Nice to meet you, I'm Sister Ester Blanchett," the nun smiled at Peter and Wendy, but a frown soon replaced it as she looked at everyone else in the room. "Umm, is something wrong?" she asked Kate.

"These two were found in the Iron Maiden," Kate explained, as she pointed to Peter and Wendy. "Everyone is just jumpy because when they showed up Seth magically disappeared," she raised her hands in the air, as if she herself were getting tired of thinking about it, "and now, Abel is missing as well! I swear once I get my hands on him…"

"Oh… Well when you find him please tell me I need to give him something," Ester said before excusing herself from the room.

Peter shivered, Kate didn't seem like the kind of person who would take a joke lightly. He certainly didn't want to get on her bad side… Oh wait, he already was.

"Uh-umm," Peter tried getting everyone's attention. "I- I saw Father Nightroad and a black haired girl leave the ship," he said timidly. That got everyones attention.

"What!" both Asthe and Ion screamed together. "Are you sure!" they asked, only a second apart from each other.

"I was going to follow them but, Eris went instead," Peter said as he nodded his head.

"If Abel dare does anything to Seth, I swear he'll regret it," Asthe growled.

"Hah. I'm going to make sure he regrets taking her without warning us, even if she isn't hurt." Ion snarled. "Tch, I can't imagine her getting injured anyway but if Abel rude…" Ion stuck his nose up in the air. "Let's just say he won't even want to show his face, ever again."

Peter flinched, that wasn't what he wanted at all. He just thought it would be best to tell them something. All these people seemed so scary. He looked to Leon, expecting him to add something, to the list of what to do with Abel, but he said nothing.

XXX

It was easy finding Eris. She did nothing to hide her whereabouts. A smile spread across his features, if she had been meaning to follow him and not get found she would have to do better then that. Even, Caterina had done better when following him, he didn't even notice she was there until she said something. Then again, Abel hadn't been in the best of moods back then and he wasn't feeling well but still, Eris sucked as a spy.

He jumped to another roof, and looked down at her. Eris would look from left to right and back again, then take a few steps and do the same. It was obvious that she was looking for someone. She walked further away to the other side of the street, so Abel jumped to the row of buildings on the other side.

What to do, What to do. He had told Seth he would be back within the hour but he couldn't just leave her here, could he? What if something happened to her? Then there was the matter that they hadn't found that base yet either. At least while following her, he could also keep an eye out for the orders base. Yup, the safest choice would be to follow her, besides he didn't want to deal with everyone back on the ship yet.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, and yet Eris still didn't give up, and so Abel continued to follow her. They were both soaking wet, because of the rain. Abel was unaffected by it but Eris seemed to be miserable and cold. Wasn't it time for her to give up yet? Eris walked over to a frozen bench and sat down on it. She drew her legs up to her chest and rapped her arms around them and rested her head on her knees, she shivered. If she was trying to get Abel to feel sorry for her it was working.

Abel jumped down from the building, making sure she didn't see him do so. He walked over to Eris and tapped her shoulder. She didn't react so he shook her, "hey, are you okay?" he asked. He shook her again and looked at her face, her eye's were wide open in fear but other then that she didn't move. What was going on here?

XXX

Seth entered the Iron Maiden. It was about the time everyone usually started to wake up, but for some reason she could hear talking going on in the control room. She entered the room. Two new faces were with all the familiar ones. Well not new seeing as she saw them the day before but they weren't people she had actually talked to.

Asthe was the first to notice her arrival, "We have been looking everywhere for you!" she exclaimed as relief flooded her features. At Asthe's out burst Ion seemed to take notice in Seth and nodded his head, to back up what Asthe had said.

"I'm sorry," Seth smiled, "I wanted to have a look at the town while it was morning and not night," she lied, exchanging Methuselah time with terran. She turned to the two kids, seated next to Leon, they must have been friends with that girl who had been following her and Abel. "I'm Seth, who are you guys?"

"Peter," the yellow hair boy said, "and this is Wendy," he gestured to the girl next to him.

"Do you know where Abel is?" Ester entered the room with a worried expression on her face. "I've been looking everywhere for him and Peter said he was with you," she explained.

Well, there goes all hope that nobody would notice they had disappeared together. "Abel? I haven't seen him since we got back to the ship," she lied again.

XXX

"What's wrong?" Abel shook Eris for what seemed to be the hundredth time. Fear laced his voice. She was reacting to him at all, as though he wasn't even there. She just sat there staring in front of her with fear in her eyes. Abel picked Eris up bridal style and raced back to the ship, running faster then even a methuselah could. She needed help!

He wasn't able to get far, something tripped him. Eris fell out of his arms and slid a few feet away from him, across the wet ground. What had that been? Abel moved into a sitting position, not taking his eye off Eris. Slowly he stood up and walked toward Eris.

The sound of a whip cutting through the air could be heard. A growl rose in his throat, he jumped just narrow missing being hit by the invisible force. It must have been Dietrich's strings. The rain drops that were being cut in mid air warned Abel that the string was coming back again. He ducked and rolled. He could barely see the strings because no light were there to reflect off them.

Abel dodged the strings again it almost seemed like they were missing on purpose. He noticed it to late. The strings closed in around him, and squeezed him tightly. Abel gasped for air, as he struggled to get out. His clothes began to rip, revealing his skin. The strings got tighter the more he struggled. Dang it all!

He could barely move, the strings were cutting into his skin and drawing blood. Already his blood was dripping down the string. Well at least he could see them now. Abel looked towards Eris, she was beginning to stand up. But Abel knew better then to be happy, she was being controlled by the puppet master. The fact she was holding a knife only added to this fact. She walked up to him. Her eye's were filled with terror, she was watching everything that was happening and yet she wasn't able to do anything. She was powerless.

"It's okay Eris, its not your fault," Abel tried reassuring her as she neared him. He could tell she was struggling to gain control or to talk, but couldn't.

She was before him in a heart beat, her hand held up above her head ready to strike him with the knife. The metal glinted it what little light there was. It struck him in the heart. It hurt. Abel's knees buckled but the strings kept him from falling. His vision got blurry but he refused to loose consciousness.

Another figure appeared behind Eris and drew the knife out of his heart. Abel gasped in pain but otherwise didn't react. It was Dietrich, or at least it was a puppet that looked like him.

"Mein Heir, might still care about you, but I don't," Dietrich flipped the knife in his hand before he drew it across Abel'c cassock deep enough that it touched his skin and drew blood. "If it weren't for him, I would have killed you already," the knife met his face this time.

Abel snarled and struggled against the strings harder. He could feel them loosen a fraction and tried moving his arms away from him. Abel broke the strings and gasped. Every little movement inflamed his all his cuts, and the stab to his heart didn't help either. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"Tch, it's just like you to jump to the point. Just ignore what I said earlier but be warned. If you continue to hunt Mein Heir and means harm to him, I will kill you," Dietrich held up a piece of paper, "this is a note from him, containing information on the game." he explained. "He was getting tired of waiting for you," he chuckled at this as though it was proof that Abel had failed. He let the note float to the ground, before he collapsed. It was a puppet.

Abel's eyes flickered from the note to Eris. Ignoring the pain he made his way to Eris. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I-I stabbed you," Eris sobbed and buried her face in his shredded clothes. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, its not your fault," Abel patted her head and tried not to moan in pain. He just hopped they wouldn't heal as slowly as it had the last time. "Where's your friends?" he asked, "I'll take you to them."

Eris looked up at him with big eyes as if she couldn't believe what he had just said. She had stabbed him and he was acting as though it was okay! She quickly looked down, "Peter and Wendy are in the ship… We followed you and the other people with you." She seemed ashamed that they had followed him.

"Well, we better get back. I'm sure Peter and Wendy are worried about you," Abel took her hand into his and grabbed the note.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Never thought I would make 100 reviews, but I did! Please continue reviewing, everyone!

**Chaos of Light and Dark:** No problem, I understand if you don't review. I wasn't expecting you to comment on my review for fountainofroses either but you did. Now as for your question... I would go sight seeing at the empire, it seems like a really beautiful place. I don't think I would want to see anyone from the book though, like Abel or Seth, and so on. It would be weird and they'd think I was a spy cause I know about them. I for some reason I can't return home I would join the AX if I'm not sent to a mental ward first.


	32. Chapter 32

Abel entered the ship with Eris on his back. She had gotten tired of walking and so he offered to carry her. Not even one minute passed until she fell asleep. He was thankful that all his smaller cuts had healed, the only wound left was the one to his heart. It didn't hurt, just felt numb, as the crusnik tried to heal it.

The hatch closed behind Abel, and as soon as he took one step into the hall, Kate appeared out of no where. "Where have you been?" she demanded, she shook her head, "never mind just take her into the control room and go take a bath, you're filthy." She shimmered out of view. What had that been about? She didn't yell of his head like she normally did. Abel shrugged and did as she said.

He took Eris into the room and laid her down on a fresh towel that was already set on the couch. It seemed like Peter and Wendy had been found since they were both sitting by Leon.

"Where were you?" Ion half asked half growled. He eyed Abel, and as if only realizing that Abel was hurt he asked, "what happened?"

"Oh this?" Abel held out his arm, so that everyone could get a better look at all the rips in his clothes. "I tripped over my feet," he laughed. "I need to go take a bath, before Kate does something horrid to me, so I'll talk to you guys later." He walked toward the exit then stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Seth could you take a look at Eris?" He walked out of the room without waiting for an answer.

"His whole shirt was all bloody but I couldn't see any signs off cuts on him, could you?" Ion turned to Asthe.

"I wouldn't worry to much about him," Leon spoke up, "if that really is Four eye's then the guy has always been a fast healer. Must be his special skill or whatever, its about the only thing he's ever really good at," Leon shrugged.

"Really?" Asthe asked, "well that would explain a lot, but if that is the case why was he healing slowly when he got injured the last time?" Leon shrugged in response.

A frown grew on Esters features and she walked out of the room, deep in thought. 'He just acted like Father Nightroad. He was actually smiling and acting innocent as though he didn't know what Ion was talking about.'

"Hey red, where you going?" Leon called after her.

"I'll be right back I just remembered something," Ester called back. She reached Abel's door, and could hear the rustling of paper behind it. That wasn't the sound of someone getting ready to take a bath. Taking a deep breath she opened the door.

XXX

Abel looked up, at the sound of his door creaking open. Oh hell. He had taken off his shirt, to get a better look at his chest and didn't bother to put one on before reading the note. After all he was supposed to be taking a bath. Abel turned around to face the closet, as though he was grabbing clothes. The only thing was there was nothing in it.

"Are you okay?" a soft voice asked. It was Ester. Abel could hear the door shut behind her as she took a few steps into the room.

"I'm fine," he answered, as he folded up Cains note and stuffed it into his pocket. 'Come on, just heal already!' he urged himself, as he looked down at his chest.

"I saw all that blood on your shirt," Ester said. She took a step closer.

"Oh," Abel paused, "that was from Eris."

"Eris wasn't injured at all, except for a few cuts on her knees, and elbow," Ester retorted, she sounded a bit irritated.

Abel put his hand on his chest to cover the wound, "as you can see I'm fine," he turned around. "Do you mind turning around?" he asked, "I feel embarrassed with you there staring at me."

It didn't work. Ester frowned even more, and stomped the rest couple of feet toward him. "Are you trying to trick me!" she barked. Abel flinched, since when did she ever get this mad? "Well, think again mister!" she yanked his hand away from his chest. "You always, got hurt and never told anyone, and you're still doing the same thing! 'I'm fine, it's okay, are you okay?' Gah!" she mimicked him. "You always care about others before yourself and even when your hurt you don't like asking others for help!" she screamed. "Is this some kind of guy thing?" she dragged him to his bed and pushed him on it, forcing him to sit down.

"Ester I really am fine," Abel said, as he gave her a reassuring smile. He tried getting off the bed but Ester forced him back down.

"Sit!" she ordered. She swung a bag off her shoulder that, Abel hadn't even noticed before. "Here," she dropped something into his lap. "Lady Caterina wanted me to give that to you, and Professor William told me watch you, to make sure you drank all of it. They also told me that I would need to trick you into taking it and to not tell you what it really was, but I don't see why I have to do that, seeing as you don't have amnesia," she glared at him.

"Huh?" Abel looked down in his lap. It was a bag of blood, the sweet scent was coming from this.

"Father Nightroad," Ester put her face so close to his that he could feel her breath on is face. "I know you don't have amnesia, so don't try convincing me other wise! Now hurry up and drink it," she ordered.

Abel timidly picked up the bag of blood, and expected. He had been offered blood by his sister and had refused it, why would he want this blood? "Is this blood?" he asked, yup, he had decided to play dumb. "I'm not a vampire, so I can't drink it…" he trailed off, at the look in her face.

"Really? Then why do you have fangs? I noticed them when Father Leon hit you, and you bit your tongue. Please, just drink it," her voice softened into a kinder one.

Abel sighed and scratched his head. By the look in Ester's face he could tell she knew the truth and wouldn't be convinced otherwise. "Okay, I don't have amnesia," he confirmed, "but, I won't drink this," he waved the bag of blood in his hand. "I can heal without it, besides it tastes horrid," he made a face to prove his point. It was actually really good, but Ester didn't need to know that.

"Fine, but when Lady Caterina scolds you don't blame me," Ester sighed.

"Thank yooou, soooo, much!" Abel exclaimed, and jumped off the bed to give Ester a hug, but made sure to not get any blood on her clothes. "Could you not tell anyone else about me not having amnesia?" he looked up at her with large eyes.

Ester looked at him, highly confused, "fine, but only-"

"You're an angel! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he released her, and looked up at her. "You won't regret this! I promise!" he vowed. Gathering up his clothes, he tripped over his legs, mumbled something about the carpet being bumpy then raced out of the room, into the shared bathing, area. Idiot, idiot, idiot! He repeated to himself as he came to a stop outside of the bathroom.

Slipping into the bathroom Abel fished out the note and threw his extra clothes, by the lockers. He scanned the note a few times. It felt as though his brother was just leading him in circles.

_Dear 02,_

_I got tired of waiting for you to find the base, and so I have sent the puppet master to deliver this to you. Be sure to thank him. _

_The rules to the game is simple all you need to do is follow the clues without being killed. Oh and theres a catch, you also need to complete it within a year. If you don't then someone will die, and I don't just mean the queen, I mean someone much, much closer to you! Oh, and don't forget that you'll be cursed and need to live out the rest of your life in that small body!_

Abel looked around the room, and blinked a few times before scanning the paper again. Where were these clues, Cain kept on talking about! If he didn't tell Abel anything, then of course he would loose. Abel folded the note and stuffed it in the pocket of his pants, before slipping into the large bathtub. What were these clues!

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><p><strong>AN:** Hope this chapter wasn't confusing, I was half sleeping when I wrote the first part and then when I woke up I couldn't remember what I had planned so it might be confusing toward the middle. Yes, my writing is going _way_ off from my outline.


	33. Chapter 33

Abel collapsed in his bed, all he wanted to do was get some rest. After all, last night, he hadn't gotten any. _Stomp- stomp- stomp_. Abel groaned and threw the blanket over his head, he could hear the person, stopping right outside his door, the door opened.

"Wake up!" a voice snarled at him and tried yanking the blanket away.

"Go away," Abel mumbled, but it sounded more like, 'gway.' He drew the blanket closer to him, "it's late."

"It might be late to a Methuselah but to a Terran it's morning, hell it's not even morning anymore it's lunch time!" the voice argued. This time when he tried yanking the blanket away, Abel was pulled with it, and fell on the ground.

Abel sat up ad looked at his unfriendly alarm clock, "I didn't get to sleep at all, can't you give me another hour?" he asked Ion, as he crawled back into bed.

Ruffly, Ion grabbed Abel by the hand and dragged him out of the room. "You should have thought of that before, you left! I wouldn't have waken you up if you had gone by yourself, but you didn't, you went with Seth! Do you know what could have happened if she got hurt?" Ion yanked open a door and walked in, dragging Abel in behind him.

"She's not hurt though," Abel yawned. Ion ignored him, and continued walking.

"Everyone's patrolling the city today, and that includes you," Ion said, as he stopped next to the hatch. "Everyone will be going out in about thirty minutes, but as you're a terran you'll need a head start, so that we all end at the same time."

"Yeah but it's raining," Abel protested. Ion pushed him into the hatch and had it lowered. Immediately Abel was buffeted by the rain, and was soaked with in seconds. Abel shivered, he wasn't really cold but he did so anyway.

There wasn't any people out today, the streets where completely empty. With the exception of a few people running home, with their coats pulled closely to them to ward off the cold. The only other presence of people were the cooks in fancy restaurants or the sells men seated by the doors of their market, waiting for a lone customer to come in.

There was just no way he was going to continue this search at the speed of a terran. Abel looked around him, to make sure no one was watching before he took off at the speed of a methuselah. Abel fell into the usual routine, run around town until he found something different.

It was about an hour later when Abel finally took notice of something off. Music was playing over the roaring of the rain and thunder. He listened closely it sounded like it was coming from the same place where Abel and Eris was attacked. Abel sprinted toward the sound, but slowed when he heard other voices.

Seth, and the methuselah where there along with Leon and Ester. None of them was listening to the music except for Seth, who seemed to recognize it. From this close Abel could just make out a few words that were being mumbled until before the person went back to humming the song with more confidence.

The man who was singing was well into his sixties if not older, Abel would have even said that the man was in his early eighties if it weren't for the fact that he was standing up and walking around. He wore all black, except for a golden ring that was on his finger. A marriage ring, Abel guessed.

Abel pricked his ears up, trying desperately to hear what the man was singing, over the rain. He walked closer, just so that he was only a yard away, from Seth.

"That song sound's really familiar," Seth said, "the others don't seem to know it though." She sounded disappointed by this. "Do you know what it's called?"

Abel hissed at her to be quiet. The man would keep on humming the whole song and would only repeat a small part of it, Abel guessed that it was the chorus.

"...Hmm, hmm, hmm… falling down, falling down, hmm, hmm, falling down, falling down-" the man sang, over and over again. Abel took a step closer and the man stopped singing, Abel froze as the man turned to look at Abel. He gave a warm smile before looking away, and singing again.

"Nice of you to join us," Leon said as he walked toward Abel. "I wouldn't bother that old man if I were you, he's some kind of nut job, he should be the one to be put behind iron bars, not me," he snorted.

Then it hit him, the old man was singing London Bridges. Abel's eyes widened, but wait, wasn't that a really old song? It was even older then Abel. Wasn't it destroyed during Armageddon? The only other person who would know it was Cain- This couldn't be a hint could it? Abel thought for a second, "there were no bridges in Berlin, at least no main ones, does he mean for us to go all the way back to Londinium?"

"I don't think we'll find anything here," Abel said, so that everyone could hear. They all looked to him for an explanation. "I think- I think the Leader of the Orden wants us to play a game with him," Abel started. The only way to get everyone to listen to him was if he showed them the letter. "When we met that puppet who was walking on the wall, yesterday, he was caring a note. The note had information about a game, and I think that the man singing over there," Abel pointed to the man, "is a clue… He's singing an ancient song called London Bridges Falling Down."

"You didn't tell us about the note!" Asthe growled just as Ion said, "How do you know and ancient song?"

"We need to go back to Londinium," Abel said, as he ignored the two methuselah.

"Wait! The first note that I found said that there was another base in Estonia!" Ion protested. "We can't just go back to Londinium without checking Estonia first! Besides how did you get Londinium from that song?"

"London was Londinium's name pre-armageddon," Abel stated.

"What about this note that you found?" Asthe asked. "It might not have anything to do with the orden, we can't just drop what we're doing just because you think what you found was really a note from them."

Abel growled and fished out a note from his pocket. At this point it didn't really matter to him which one they read, as long as it would get them to see how important it was for them to head back to Londinium. His fingers closed around a paper and he pulled it out, handing it to Asthe. Every second they wasted would put someone in danger.

"Who's 02?" Leon asked. He was looking over Asthe's shoulder, at the note.

"I think he has me confused with someone else," Abel lied. "But, the content of it includes things about me and the Queen. If I don't complete the game I could end up in this short body forever and the Queen of Londinium could die!" Abel tried to convince them.

"It could be a trap," Asthe said. "It's to dangerous. We'll go to Estonia first and then head back to Londinium."

"By then it could be to late!" Abel argued, he looked to Seth for help however she also seemed to agree with Asthe. Was his theory about the song really that far fetched? "I'll find my way back to Londinium, you guys can go to Estonia," Abel was surprised at how calm his voice had become. "I'll contact you guys once I get there and tell you if I find anything."

"Pft, that's some really big words coming from a shrimp," Leon roared, with laughter. "How are you planing on getting back to Londinium without a ship? It could take you months, to walk there."

"I'll find away," Abel stated. "Oh yeah, and stop treating me like I'm a kid! For crying out loud I'm twenty years old!" He gave Leon a goofy smile, just so that Ester wouldn't wonder why he was acting so strangely. Abel turned away from them and sprinted down the main street, as soon as he was out of sight he took off into a run.

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><p><strong>AN:** Please review, it really helps.

**Fountainofroses:** Get better soon, I know it's strange having a stranger pray for you but I am. Hope your flu goes away soon.


	34. Chapter 34

The stuffed bag, hit against Abel's leg, as he skidded to a stop. The strap dug into his shoulder but he didn't let it bother him, it didn't hurt at all. Four days, and already Abel was at the border of Lundinium. The bag lid from Abel's shoulder as he took seat next to a tree. Running non stop without anything to eat was taking a toll on him, screw eating he hadn't even had time to close his eye's for five days, thanks to Ion.

Abel got up. No, right now wasn't the time to be sleeping, he could do that later. Abel swung the bag over his shoulder and took off again, Cain could have meant to go to either the old bridge that was destroyed during Armageddon or the new bridge. Abel would need to look at both. Abel decided to go to the old bridge first, or at least what was left of it.

The bridge had two buildings, one on each end. It was built from bricks and under the bridge was another bridge that the cars could cross on. This part of the bridge was mechanical. When the ships came to dock they would lift the bridge so that the ships could go into the dock. However after Armageddon the bridge between the two buildings were destroyed, now all that was left was on of the buildings and half of the other.

Abel entered the nearest building on silent feet. The building was the one that was half destroyed. It was dusty inside and there was no sign that anyone had entered there for at least a hundred years. Abel moved onto the next one and it came out the same.

"Gah, I can't find anything!" Abel growled to no one in particular. He slammed the door to the building and headed off to the new bridge that was built after Armageddon. Abel decided to walk to the next bridge. It was a few miles away but he didn't care, after all the others would probably think he was still somewhere in Berlin being an idiot. Abel chuckled, 'you won't find me there,' he thought.

"Abel?" A voice called from behind. Abel whipped around, ready to attack if need be. "It's me," said the voice, it was Lord Welsh. "Why are you back so soon? Where are the others?"

"The leader of the orden sent us a note," Abel replied, both he and Virgil where walking toward each other. "The note said something about a game and clues that we need to follow. We just recently found a clue it led us back to Londinium," Abel answered. "The others aren't here they head to Estonia," or they might still be in Berlin. But Abel kept this part to himself.

"So then you guys back tracked?" Virgil asked.

"No, the others aren't with me, I found my own way here," Abel said. "Anyway, I believe that there might be a clue on the bridge, connecting the two shores," Abel continued as he turned and started toward the 2nd bridge.

"Why do you think the next clue is at the bridge?" Virgil asked.

"Because the last clue pointed this place out," Abel stopped and turned toward Virgil, "you don't need to follow me, I might be wrong after all, besides don't you have other places you need to be?"

Virgil shook his head. "I'm not busy now, besides I can't just let an amnesic go wondering off by himself."

"I'm not amnesic, I haven't lost my memories since the last time, and I remember everything perfectly fine, from the time I woke up till now," Abel growled. He would need to be careful with lord Welsh seeing as he was already suspicious of Abel, but letting the man know he hadn't lost his memories since the first time wouldn't hurt. He turned on his heal and started at a jog.

They finally arrived at the bridge. Abel guessed it was around six o'clock by the position of the sun. This bridge was just like the last, except for it wasn't half destroyed. The railings where coated in gold and silver, and the buildings also acted as clock towers.

Abel ran along the bridge, it was about half a mile long. Virgil went into the buildings to investigate, though Abel ad a feeling he would also need to look into the buildings as well since Virgil didn't know what to look for… Well, neither did Able but at least he recognized some thing different when he saw it.

XXX

"It's been four days!" Leon yelled. "Four days, and that shrimp still hasn't come back yet." Leon stomped around the small coffee table in the middle of the room, he was restless.

"We need to leave for Estonia, we can't afford to waste any more time waiting for him," Seth put in. She knew her brother wasn't going to be back anytime soon. If he set his mind to something he always did it even if other people were against him doing so.

"Ester is buying more supplies for food," Kate teleported into the room. "Once she gets back we can leave."

Leon nodded, "sounds like a plan."

"Who knows maybe she'll find Abel and drag him back here," Asthe commented, as she crossed her arms. She seemed irritated and worried that Abel wasn't back yet.

"Sir," everyone turned to the timid voice, it was Peter. "Is it okay if we go with you guys?" Peter and the others gave Leon innocent looking faces.

"What?" Leon scratched his head and looked at them as though they were crazy. He looked to Kate, who shrugged, and walked away in exaggerated slowness as though she wanted to hear what was going to happen. "Ummm-"

"We can do chores, and help you guys," Wendy spoke up. "We know that you're looking for a base, and Eris and I both have… special abilities that you might need."

"Please, say yes! If those scientists find me they'll keep doing tests on me!" Eris exclaimed, her eyes showed real fear, and hope.

Seth sighed, when was this terran going to give his answer? The kids were waiting for him. This was to much, Seth put her hand on Eris' shoulder, the girl turned around. "You guys can come with us," Seth announced and gave the children a toothy grin.

"Thank you," the kids all said together at the same time.

"However," all the kids held their breath, "you guys will need to help out with the chores, and if we tell you to do something, no complaining. Alright?" Seth said. Peter, Eris and Wendy all nodded their heads vigorously, they seemed happy to know that they wouldn't be dumped on the side of the streets.

XXX

Meetings were never a fun thing to go to for Caterina. It almost seemed as though her brother, Francesco, lived to make it that way. Francesco made meetings a living hell for her, if she wanted one thing then he would want another. This was so frustrating!

"Is everything alright my lady?" Caterina turned and saw Havel giving her a friendly smile, it was just like him to always brighten her mood.

"You know how it is with me and meetings," she said, as she continued to make her way to her office.

"Yes, I know all to well, but in the end everything always turns out okay," Havel replied back, he had turned down another hall that didn't lead to Caterina's office. "If you ever need anyone to talk to you know where to find me," he called over his shoulder.

Caterina continued to stride to her office, a few of the nuns she passed would bow to her or ask her how her day has been, but her mind wasn't on this, it was on the meeting. She wanted the empire and vatican to enter a treaty, but Francesco said no. Abel was a friend to her but Francesco hated him. To Francesco the only people who should be allowed to live were the humans, not the vampires, he was even against most of her agents in the AX.

Entering her room Caterina strode to her desk and took a seat. She could hear Tres making his way to the entrance of the office to guard her. She turned on her com and flicked a switch under her desk, to activate the projector. She could worry about Francesco later, right now she needed to see how the mission was going in Berlin.

The light on the com blinked red, then green, signaling that she was able to get a connection with the Iron Maiden. Caterina pressed another button to get Kate online.

"Hold on a minute," Kates voice came through, a few seconds later se was projected into the room, as though she had never left it. "Lady Caterina," she bowed.

"I was wondering how the mission was going, have you found the orden's hideout yet?" Caterina asked. Her hands where intwined, and were propped up on the desk infront of her.

There was a slight beeping noise in the back ground, Caterina raised an eyebrow in question. "Hold on a second, someone else is trying to call us," Kate said. There was a slight pause, "It's from Lundinium," she looked at Caterina unsure of if she should answer it.

"Patch it through," Caterina answered, "make it a three way connection." Kate did so and a few seconds later, Abel's face appeared on one of the screens. What was he doing in Lundinium?

"Abel! We've been looking all over for you!" Kate shouted, "How did you get to Lundinium so fast?"

"It doesn't matter since I didn't find anything," Abel said bluntly, "do you mind puting Seth on? I need to ask her something."

"Abel why are you in Lundinium?" Caterina asked. It was strange talking to him in a serious matter since he looked like a kid. She chuckled at the irony of it all.

Abel's frown deepened, his eye's flickered to the side. He was probably looking at the screen that had Kate in it. "I got a note from Cain about a game," Abel said, he didn't take his eyes of of Kates screen but she didn't seem to have heard. He continued, "It said something about clues, and one of the clues led me here," Abel explained quickly. Caterina could tell he wasn't telling her everything, only a shorter version.

"Can you send me the note?" Caterina asked, Abel nodded and he moved away from the screen.

The sound of typing could be heard and the a moment later he reappeared on the screen. "You should be getting it soon," Abel said.

Seth's image flickered into view. "Good afternoon, lady Caterina," Seth smiled, then turned to Abel. "Yes?"

Abel sighed, "I went to two bridges and found nothing, one was from pre-Armageddon and the other was the rebuilt version of it after the war. They were both the main bridges, at one point in time… Do you know if there is another one?" Abel asked, he sounded hopeful

Seth shook her head, "I really doubt that the person singing an ancient song was a clue, and I told you that!" Seth pouted. "If you're looking for another bridge, why don't you look at a map?" she suggested. Her eye's widened, "The song was referring to another bridge," a map appeared on the screen and it zoomed in on Lundinium. "There were two bridges that were built before the war," Seth's finger appeared on the screen as she pointed to on spot, the one that you went to was this one. However before that one was made there was another one, and it's somewhere over here," her finger moved across the map and stopped on a small land mark. Abel's image flickered from view, "hey wait a minute Abel!" Seth called, but it as to late he had already turned off his com. Seth turned back to Caterina she had a scowl on her face, "um, have a good day," she also flickered out.

Caterina rubbed her temples, kids could be so- wait Abel wasn't a kid, she corrected herself. "Kate, go back to Londinium, I think Abel might be on to something," Caterina ordered. The fax had come in, and she was now staring at the copy of the note Abel had mentioned.

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><p>AN: The next chapter will be the last one for this story, after that I will be starting the sequel!... the only thing is... I still don't have a title... yeah, the story of my life.

Please review, even if I don't respond to you I still read them. You can also review if you don't have an account.


	35. Chapter 35

Abel rushed turned off the monitors as fast as he could. He turned on the swivel chair, and raced out the door. Why didn't he think of that sooner? He had spent a whole year studying the history of architecture and he had forgotten about the first bridge built in London! Then again, he did have the bridge to blame, what part of it fell anyway?

Abel raced out into the garden and passed the guards. A few of them yelled at him for running while the others asked where he was going. The queen knew he was here so all the guards recognized him, and knew he was a guest. Abel sighed, the Queen had invited him over for a late dinner, but it seemed like he would be late. He really needed to check the bridge and find the next clue. God he was tired, he hadn't slept at all, and hadn't eaten anything in the past five days.

He neared the place where the bridge was supposed to be. It was built farther away from the other two that he had already investigated. There was nothing left of this bridge, instead. Where the bridge was supposed to be were houses, and the water. The only thing that could possibly be left of the bridge would be in the lake. Cain didn't mean for the next clue to be in the water did he? Gah! Abel hated swimming, there was no way he was going to jump in there. He turned away from the lake to face the houses. He would investigate there before he went to the lake.

XXX

The others wouldn't be happy with the news Kate had for them, heck even she wasn't happy, Seth could tell. Seth entered the main room just as Kate teleported into it.

"Caterina has ordered us to go back to Albion," Kate reported.

"What?" Leon demanded, "didn't you guys already go over there? What about Estonia?" Leon rose from his seat, as though he were ready to fight, just so he could go to estonia.

"Isn't that where the Queen is?" the children whispered to each other just as Asthe said, "if this has anything to do with Abel, I don't even want to know," she crossed her arms and legs where she sat on the couch. She slumped down into her seat even more.

Seth turned around just as Ester came through the hatch, she walked into the control room carrying a few bags, Ion was right behind her caring more. "What's wrong?" she asked when she noticed everyone's solemn faces. She deposited her bags on the side of a wall right out side of the kitchen, Ion was right behind her. He had a troubled look on his face, as he wondered the same thing.

"We're going to Albion!" Wendy piped up, she looked pleased by this fact. "We might get to meet the Queen!"

Ester frowned, "didn't you guys already go there?"

_Whack- _Seth saw Asthe hit her head, against her hand. "I'm going to kill that brat once I find him!" she announced. "Lets leave right now! Abel can find his own way back," she growled.

Seth opened her mouth to say something but Kate beat her to it. "Abel is already at Londinium," she told the duchess.

"What?" both Leon and Asthe yelled at the same time. "How the hell did he get there in only five days?" they both said again. They glanced at each other with a confused face.

"I don't know how he got there either," Kate stated. She teleported to the controls, and pressed a sequel of buttons. The next minute the ship started to rumble and Seth had the slight sensation of flying.

XXX

Abel raced along the side of the broken bridge, it must have been the hundredth time he had done so today. In the past two days all he had done was look over all three bridges and he had found nothing. He was beginning to think that his sister was right, the song wasn't clue. Abel cursed as he looked at the bridge once more, he was only postponing the inevitable. Sooner or later he would need to jump into the lake.

A row of houses slowly passed him as he jogged to the other bridge, the one that had been created before the mechanical ones. He stopped when he was in front of an old shack. It was built right where the bridge connected to the land after it was destroyed. Abel dropped his bag by the door of the shack, no one lived in it except for the occasional rat.

Holding his breath Abel made his way to the lake. The water lapped over his bear feet, and he shivered. He let out his breath and took another step into the cool water. One, two, three! Abel dived into the lake he swam a little ways off before he popped his head above the surface to breath. Taking another breath, he dunked his head again, he never dove down deeper then five feet.

Following along the place where the bridge would have been above, Abel found nothing. Still holding his breath he decided to dive down deeper. Something glinted at the corner of his vision. Moving his arms to the right, he twisted in the water to get a better look.

_-Bang- _Abel moved just in time to dodge a missile. He twisted in the water to turn to his attacker. It was Isaac. He wore his suit just as he always had and he was coated in a bubble to prevent himself from getting wet, and allowed him to breath underwater. Abel growled, and immediately water flooded his lungs. He ignored this, knowing he could last at least another minute before he needed air. Abel swam as fast as he could to get a hold of Isaac, but the butler easily dodged, all most as if his movement wasn't affected by the water.

Isaac punched Abel in the gut causing him to swallow water. Abel kicked Isaac, and swam for air. To late. Isaac took hold of Abel foot and dragged him deeper into the water, Abel tried kicking away, but the water slowed his attacks, allowing Isaac to dodge them with ease. They were almost at the bottom now, and Abel could see the container that had attracted his attention before Isaac had showed up.

It was a large clear tube, just big enough for a child to fit in. Abel's eyes widened when he realized what Isaac was aiming for. There was no way he was going into that thing, even for a clue. Abel struggled against Isaac's hold, but the lack of air was making him dizzy, and it only made the grip on his foot increase.

Should he activate the crusnik? If he did he could get out of here, within seconds. What harm could be done? No! Abel pushed away the mind of the crusnik. It wasn't him, and he wouldn't fall for their tricks ever again.

Abel twisted his foot then kicked out but Isaac still didn't let go. They were only an inch away from the tube. Isaac took hold of Abel's neck with his free hand and pushed a button with his elbow. The tube opened. Abel tried prying his hand away, his vision was blurring.

Air flooded Abel's lungs so fast that it almost burned. His vision was coming back to him, he was in the tube. Pressing his hand against the glass he tried popping it open but it wouldn't work. Isaac was at the bottom of the tube playing with wires.

"What kind of crazy person would put a note here?" Abel asked as he stared down at a sticky note that was right by his knee.

_If you want out, then activate the crusnik- love 02_

Abel growled. "Nano-machine crusnik 02," electricity immediately began to bounce of the walls. It wasn't normal but Abel continued. "Release of restriction," blue sparks began to encircle both Abel and the tube. He stopped. Abel could just make out Isaac waving at him through all the sparks. The blueness enclosed around him, he couldn't even see his own hand any more. There was a flash of darkness but a second later the blue returned. _-Bang- _

_Abel blinked. A room swam into focus._

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><p><strong>AN:** Sorry for the cliffhanger on the last chapter, I got lazy and decided to cut it short. But never fear for the next book will explain everything.


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